Professional Pride - It Isn't Dead Yet

Anyone you talk to can tell you tales of a coworker's lack of effort and how it impacts their own efforts.  It seems that it is common, or even expected to hear stories about someone not pulling their weight and contributing to the productivity of a team or even a company.  For every example someone can give about the individual who went above and beyond to get something done right, there are dozens of examples where someone's lack of effort contributes to making progress nearly impossible.  Why are there so many people allowed to contribute detrimentally to the efforts of a team, department, division or company?  Why do we tolerate this in any environment?  For the longest time I was a firm believer in the Objectivist Philosophy, until I realized that the nature of my fellow workers made implementation impossible.  As a result, I modified my thinking so that I would do my very best and expect little from others and this has worked out depressingly well.  What goes into cultivating a sense of professional pride?  I have three basic ideas that may help, though you should keep in mind that I am referring primarily to the corporate or business world:

1. Enjoy the work you do (or find work you enjoy).  Easier said than done, you say?  It all depends on your situation I suppose.  If you are employed doing something you don't like but you need the money or the benefits, you need to evaluate what matters most to you.  You spend most of your waking hours working, so you should seriously consider the sum of your life after taking into account how much time will be tallied up in the cosmic balance sheet under "Time spent being miserable doing something I detest."  Is there something productive that you'd like to do, or want to do but don't know how to go about it?  I recommend taking the time to investigate alternatives so that you don't end up looking back and see thirty or more years of wasted time you'll never get back.
2. Look at each job or task as representing you.  This is something I can never understand about some people.  If you do a job, even one that is repetitious or tedious, you should consider it an extension of you.  Even if you don't believe in karma or a "reaping future benefits for my potentially unrecognized efforts" sort of philosophy, it still seems like a crime to look at a task as just a task.  If the job requires little actual thought, then don't put in a lot of thought.  But that doesn't mean you shouldn't treat the job as something unattached to you.  Do the job well for the sake of doing it well and you will be able to go through the rest of your life knowing that you did what you were supposed to do so efficiently and well that your name is synonymous with great work and a good work ethic.  It is great praise to have a boss or peer refer to you as a great worker regardless of what you do.  My tasks and jobs represent me, so when someone brings up one of these accomplishments they will link me irrevocably with good work.  "Oh, Tom?  Great worker!"  Who knew that I'd adopt such a philosophy?  My former classmates from my high school days would suffer apoplectic seizures if they heard such crazy talk from me.
3. If at all possible, go above and beyond expectations.  Again, some jobs have very little scope for this, but as I work in a corporate environment I am exposed to a large number of comments like "That isn't my job" or "It isn't in my job description" or "I don't get paid to do that."  There are plenty of things in life we don't get paid for that we still do, but when it comes to work it seems like a stupid, short-sighted and lazy approach to a career.  Movies about slacker employees having all the fun and getting the chicks is a great Hollywood formula, but after a few cubicle mishaps and seeing the snarky manager spluttering in indignation it all becomes a bit contrived and as rooted in fantasy as Lord of the Rings.  Keep in mind that I am not advocating putting your career and such above family and your real priorities, but while you are on the clock why not try to get something done ahead of schedule?  The tired old argument of "Then they'll expect me to always get it done ahead of schedule" is just rot.  In the end, you'll be seen as a responsible contributor and if you start feeling like you are being taken advantage of or that you are going to start falling behind, explain the situation and odds are the powers that be will cut you a break.  A good employer will see that you are worth more if you are kept reasonably happy and treated with some respect.

Now, I am speaking from personal experience and have only adopted this work ethic within the last 10 years, but I feel very strongly about it.  My director allows me the flexibility to expand on my projects or add new elements that exceed the scope if I see it as adding a benefit.  My manager gives me a great deal of scope for developing my skills and pushing the boundaries of what we can achieve.  I look at each project as a challenge and I view each new task as another chance to make a difference in my little bit of real estate in the cosmos.  When I complete something, I know people will not be disappointed in what they get from me.  I take an immense pride in my work.

Why don't more people have this elusive trait?  It is probably due to a combination of innate laziness coupled with  administrative disconnect with workers.  Now, does the fact that I have this trait make me better than others?  It sure as hell makes me a better worker than many others.  Is it possible to cultivate this sense of professional pride in employees in a department, division or company?  Maybe we should investigate this topic further...

Stay tuned for some great pre-SLA 2008 posts as the clock is ticking towards June and Seattle.  I can't wait to see you all there!

Thanks and Regards,

Thomas

The Top 10 Reasons Why I Love Teaching

When encountering former students from my classes in ‘library school’, I often start the conversation by asking what they are doing now - in their professional lives - that they had not imagined doing (or prepared for doing) in their MLS programs. The single most common answer is teaching.

So this is my personal ode to the 10 greatest joys of teaching adults:

1) The unimaginable rush you get when you say something and an entire room full of people write it down.
2) Turning on the light bulb (or the ah-ha) moment when you see the class ‘gets it’.
3) When someone tells you they got the job/promotion/project they wanted because of the skills you helped them develop.
4) Explaining something complex or difficult in simple terms and having the class relate to your explanation.
5) Thinking of great analogies to get to #4 above.
6) Starting a discussion where there are lively and differing opinions hotly defended in the most civil possible way.
7) Having someone tell you ‘I thought about what we talked about in class all week’.
8) Hearing (or overhearing) yourself quoted.
9) The first day of class when everything seems possible and the last day of class when we have moved together through the entire semester’s curriculum with demonstrable knowledge and skills.
10) Watching adults color outside the lines – with confidence and capability.

Ta-ta for now,

Anne

Is it time to conduct a communications audit? Attend our next webinar and find out.

Mars & Venus for Information Professionals: Are your stakeholders hearing the message you intended to send?

8 April, 2008

11:00am US Eastern Time

Presenters: Ulla de Stricker, President of de Stricker Associates & Barbie Keiser, President of Barbie E Keiser, Inc.

As the world changes, libraries find that the communication vehicles they currently employ to keep in touch with thier clients (e.g., intranets, extranets, e-newsletters) may be a bit outmoded and are no longer doing their intended jobs. When this occurs, it might be time to conduct a communications audit to gather valuable insight into the particular communication vehicle your information center may be using.

The audit utilizes a mix of techniques, including:

• Conducting a comprehensive survey of users to assess how they use the library's communication vehicles
• Facilitating focus group discussions to delve more deeply into existing challenges and uncover potential solutions
• Holding interviews with selected clients to verify findings through actual on-site observations

If conducted properly, the communications audit should reshape not only the concrete website, intranet or e-newsletter, but the processes used to create, update and deliver them.

Register today. Make sure your stakeholders are hearing the message you intended to send.

Lorraine

The Widget Webcast!

Last week's webcast "Widgets: Internet Sushi for the Web 2.0 Crowd" had a great turnout. A large global community of InfoPros, knowledge managers and interested parties joined me online for a look at the widgetsphere and how things are looking these days for one of the many stepchildren of the Web 2.0 family. Here are some highlights:

What makes it a "widget"?

• A widget by any other name still has the following two key attributes:
  It is a distributable web object (A miniature application that you can port into nearly any web environment)


• It allows for interaction with and displays dynamic content on the client side in a digestible visual format that changes via server-side updates and user initiated modifications

What makes it a “distributable” object you ask?

One thing that makes a widget (the generic term I will use henceforth) a distributable object is the use of code generators. Code generators have been around for ages. You simply fill in some fields, choose some values and click a button. Then copy your newly minted code and away you go!

Another method for creating a widget as a distributable object is the use of an object generator. They have many names, but do the same job…

According to the marketing gurus in the Widgetsphere, this method is preferred by both end users and distributors as it does not require users to copy and paste code or even leave the site to implement their new widget.

And what was that about “displays dynamic content”?

The dynamic content sits on the host’s servers and is often delivered via a feed. This “push” technology means that it is updated on-the-fly. “The blinkx Video Wall is a tool which allows bloggers and website creators to embed a video wall of clips from a selected search term into their sites (and pulling from over 18 million searchable hours of footage). The display is fed by RSS, so it updates automatically as new search results come in. Users can choose the size of their desired wall, composing it with anywhere from one to sixty-four glimmering video screens. Users can even compile a specific selection of videos to be made into a video wall and embed it to their pages with ease.”

And how about that “digestible visual format ”?

Because of the limited amount of visual real estate, it is essential that widgets can compensate for high levels of data transfer through graphics. “Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. A treemap visualization algorithm helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator.”And how about “changes via server-side updates…”?

Whether or not the user triggers the change to the content displayed, or it is updated on a timed increment, the push ultimately comes from the host. You may have your top RSS feeds displayed, or maybe you are employing a mini-search box like the Bitty Browser widget but it all comes down to a solid architectural connection between the embedded or framed object and the host from whence the actual data is pushed from.

The webcast continued on, describing the primary widget types and categories and eventually walked through the current obstacles facing the expansion of widgets as well as five recommended methods for ensuring a brighter future for these little apps. We'll be posting a recording of the webcast on our Dow Jones InfoPro page once it is available, but in the meantime take a virtual walk over to Widgetbox or Clearspring and see more of the widgets I've talked about and maybe incorporate one into your blog.

I'll be back with more on the widget webcast after these messages...

Regards,

Thomas

Two Spaces Between Sentences or One?

I still use two, as I was dogmatically instructed by my 10th grade keyboarding teacher in the 80s. (I’ve just dated myself, haven’t I?) But apparently the rule has changed. This, along with other rules of customer engagement and communication in the Web 2.0 landscape were discussed in a recent workshop I attended, The New Rules of Marketing, presented by David Meerman Scott.

David kicked off the workshop by asking a series of questions that exposed how we personally make buying decisions today. The responses provided strong evidence of a change in buyer behavior. We no longer make buying decisions based on mass corporate advertising, which talks to buyers as a single, generic, monolithic group. Rather, as consumers, we make a decision to buy based on peer recommendations, product reviews (that reflect uses and circumstances similar to our own) and possibly advertising that has been tailored and personalized to our particular interests. This shift can largely be attributed to the free and boundless commerce model of the web, along with the transfer in power from the corporate marketing machine to the individual consumer. David also pointed out that these activities are occurring at the very beginning of the buying cycle, long before a corporatation is even aware that their is a potential customer looking for their products or services. Thus, the workshop emphasized the need to know your buyer persona.

I know some of you may be thinking, so what does this have to do with Information Professionals? Well, the lesson fits any role where a service to a potential client, patron, user, or customer has a CHOICE. Let's face it, our internal customers have a plethora of choices (some good, some bad) when it comes to information needed to perform their jobs. Our job is to make sure individuals in our organizations are making the BEST choice. (We can all think of examples where wrong conclusions were drawn and poor decisions were made based on inaccurate information.) Thus, just as much as a corporation needs to understand a buyer persona, we need to understand and document our internal customer personas. Building a persona will help us to understand and determine information consumption. This means at the end of the day, we can begin to deliver content that matches the current workflow and behavior of our identified personas.

To develop a persona for information consumption, questions like these would need to be answered.

• Do I know the day-to-day tasks and responsibilities of my users, internal customers, etc?
• Do I know their current information seeking habits?
• Do they need real time, minute-by-minute information updates or is a general current awareness sufficient?
• Is there a need to access archived information?
• Do they want to search for information or have it anticipated and delivered?
• Do they want information with analysis or just the data and supporting facts?
• Do they use mobile devices?
• Are they using/searching/contributing to any of the various social media vehicles?
• Are they digital natives or digital immigrants?

Armed with the user persona, we can create an information experience that is relevant, customized and useful.

So are you willing to play by the new rules? I am. And to prove it, all of my future posts will only have one space separating the sentences.

Cheers,

Nikki

More Widgety Postings - Application Spamming vs. The Widget

So you are leaving Facebook after Mark's zombie attacked yours, Mary sent you a smooch and Martine beat you at rock-paper-scisors... The fact of the matter is, the viral nature of some mini-applications make them outstanding examples of friend spamming. Some, like Slide's audio-visual widgets, suggest you share the mini applications with all of your friends. Well, you can kiss a bunch of those friends goodbye if you continuously send them aliens for their solar systems, fish for their aquariums or armadillos for their petting zoos.



It is called Application Spamming and the worst offenders require that you alienate your friends with chain letter efficiency after strafing them with a succession of assault apps. These should not be confused with the true widget, which appears to act independently of social utilities and environments (for now).

If you have a draggable chunk of web usability that you can drop almost anyplace on your page without being asked to send it to your "friends", it could/should be described as a widget. Of course, I am bypassing the tech aspect of code implementation and platform management in favor of loose paraphrasing and simple ideas. :)Let's say that you also have a moveable block of web functionality that when you use it it prompts you to send some of the fun you are having in your friends' directions. "Select all of the friends you want to _______." This would fall into the category of friend spamming. Now that you know the difference, how are social utilities like Facebook battling the attack of the time-killing (and email clogging) apps?

According to Mike Arrington:

"First, users can block applications when they receive a request, so no additional requests from that app will get through. Second, they added a “clear all” requests feature that erases all pending requests (my new favorite, and most used, Facebook feature). Also, Facebook is watching how many people block or ignore application requests - too many, and an application has restrictions placed on it."

So there you have it. Where popups continue to be employed by the faceless ne'er do wells of the Web and spam continues to be blasted out to every permutation of an email address, it seems that the social utilities and networks may just be trying to get it right this time. Time will tell if it will make a difference in the user exodus that is starting to decrease the number of new users joining social networks per diem.

One thing you should remember though... The application spamming going on is not the result of an insideous breed of Assault Widgets as much as developers wanting to spread their application seeds like dandelion fluffs.

Regards,

Thomas

Are Widgets "The New Black"?

Well, according to Richard MacManus they are. For those of you who started visiting ProgrammableWeb last year in search of the latest mashups, the widgetizing of the web began long before the first Wiki entry for the term. When you look at the increasing number of widgets submitted to Widgetbox in recent weeks (or the last couple of months), it is hard to avoid coming to the conclusion that the advent of the mashup coupled with the popularity of Facebook and other social utilities has made the widget industry the flavor of the year (so far). Many a widget can trace it's first view of sunlight back to the latest generation of Web 2.0 environments.
So how are these "portable chunks of the web" making their mark? What are they providing that there was an untapped need for prior to their introduction into our lexicon? Perhaps I can sum it up quickly with some solid points of interest...

Firstly, are indeed VERY portable, and while you can have code generated for them so that they are optimized for a variety of environments, they can be dumped most any place on the web.

Next, they have the flexibility to address many major uses for a mini app currently on the web. From the media player that features the latest from your artist of choice to RSS search widgets that deliver the latest news, podcasts and video submissions.

Let's not forget that they are providing developers with a multitude of outlets for their output, and in fact there are many places where it is encouraged. Seeing "Submit your widget" on a developer's portal is becoming more and more common.

These are some of the things we'll be looking at and discussing when I present the Dow Jones webinar "Widgets: Internet Sushi for the Web 2.0 Crowd" Register today. It'll be a blast.

Catch you soon!

Thomas