I am Santa Claus!!!! Santa Iron Man Parody
I am pretty sure this is the final post for this year. (I'm leaving myself a little room to maneuver there. You never know when inspiration might strike.)
I'd like to sincerely thank all of our clients, colleagues and friends who made this such a successful year for Alcorn Associates. Mark and I are really so very appreciative for your business, referrals and support.
As we close out this year, I 'd like to share an exercise with you that I did last year and am planning to do again because I found it really effective. Maybe you will too.
At the end of 2010, I found myself very overwhelmed with the barrage of content I was swimming in and the sheer volume of strategic objectives that I was trying to sort through for my portion of our consulting practice. Just like most of us in the association sphere I suffer from two syndromes - routinely underestimating how much I can really do while simultaneously suffering from my own charming (?!?!) brand of ADD (forever defined by Sandra Giarde, CAE as Squirrel!). While sometimes these qualities can be strengths in terms of finding initiative and/or passion, the combination of the two can be deadly to forward momentum without some consistent, conscious reining in.
I used the time between Christmas and January 1 to focus on where I wanted to concentrate my efforts in 2011. Beyond the "one word" or "three word" themes that I've tried in the past (which seemed kind of limiting), I laid out five words/terms that I wanted to concentrate in on 2011 - appreciative inquiry, change, edupunk, systems thinking and promotion.
I put these five words on the wall over my computer desk and repeated them like a mantra. I used them to guide project work, to select which professional development opportunities I would sign up for and to guide my content curation efforts. Best of all, those words sparked the "Association Executives: Provocative Proposals for Change" interview project, and were the underpinnings for the successful bid to be included in the "Edupunks Guide to a DIY Credential." They were also quite useful in terms of forcing me to reallocate my online time. I was able to develop a much better balance between being a content consumer/broadcaster and a producer.
So, I will spend my time between now and New Years figuring out my "5 Terms for 2012." I'm feeling the need for some updating. I'd love it if some of you would join me in this effort. Maybe our words will overlap and complement each other and maybe there will be opportunities for us to help each other in our journeys. Let me know what your five words are and I will share what I came up with in my first post in 2012.
Take care and celebrate the holiday season in whatever fashion suits you best!
Here is the link to the Iron Man parody - I am Santa Claus for those who can't see the embedded video. I can't believe this has been out here for four years already and I've just seen it. Ah, the Internet has such comedic treasures buried within it.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Book Review - Humanize by Maddie Grant and Jamie Notter
Welcome to the desert of the real. Morpheus - The Matrix
(This is a book review of Humanize - How People-Centric Organizations Succeed in a Social World. Just so you know, I wasn't asked to write it and received no type of compensation for doing so. The Association Subculture Blog does not accept author pitches and only writes about books we dig.)
The Short of It
Buy this book.
The Long of It
Authors Maddie Grant and Jamie Notter have hit upon what is becoming the central question of our age - how can we be more human in the workplace. (And please - lacing it with Matrix references is catnip for nerds like myself. Finding the clips for this post wasted my entire morning and I'm heading to my DVD shelf after this post to get at the real deal.)
Frankly, I consume a lot of books during the year. I've read some great books this year, some mediocre ones and thrown a few turkeys on the scrap heap. Humanize is one of only three books that has earned a spot on my "re-read" list (and three is more "re-reads" than usual). The author's combined talents take us out of the out of the realm of the "is social media something we should do" (baffling to still hear that question) and pushes us into a new organizational world where trust, openness, generative action and courageous disposition reign. They offer hope to those of us who believed the cubicle-haunting manage-o-bots of the past had won.
The best part? They are clearly a part of our association management world but this book breaks away from the "association-centric" language we are all used to and is applicable to any organization - for-profit, non-profit or governmental. Kudos to them for breaking out of our orbit and spanning the gap to our other structural cousins. Hopefully they will still remember us when they hit the big time.
There are plenty of great, detailed reviews already out there so here are the top five sentences that resonated here at the Association Subculture the most.
"Each of us is part of several networks, and while the individual relationships are important, there is a quality of our relationship with the network as a whole that also requires attention and its own set of knowledge and skills."
Well said. In this section on Generative Behavior: Relationship Building Maddie and Jamie draw a distinction between interpersonal relationships and network relationships. Most of us are aware of the challenges inherent in navigating interpersonal relationships but it is important to realize the networks we are in are now interactive as well. Associations are beginning to realize this siloed, exclusively member focused ice floe they are stranded themselves on is drifting out to sea.
"Being courageous starts by admitting you don't know and is completed by taking bold and confident action."
What an insightful point. We have a false narrative in this country that courage is reserved for the few and is not accessible to the many. The minute you admit you don't know or you aren't sure, and you decide to act anyway - that is courage. It starts with one word, "Yes."
"Answers (and data) should be the beginning of the conversation, not the end."
Hear, hear! Yes, good data is important. Yes, big data is the next frontier. Yes, quantitative and qualitative data is critical to creating understanding. I regularly pursue appreciative inquiry research projects with associations because the data we get is so powerful. However, we have become data obsessed and in some cases outright paralyzed over the past few years. For the association community, I put some of the blame squarely on the "7 Measures of Success" book. I really don't believe Jim Collins would be thrilled with the "data-driven-strategies" monsters that were created in the wake of that book. We routinely misuse the medium.
"Freeing your mind means you are not willing to be constrained by the conventional wisdom, best practices and dogma of current organizational life."
Jamie and Maddie aren't being idealistic with this statement. They freely admit they are not talking about extreme freedom that is unconstrained by realities such as legal requirements, financial obligations and the like. They are talking about putting everything else that is not "essential and required" on the table. It takes skill and discipline to continually reinvent your world. To make smart choices about what to keep and what to discard. To mold and shape versus plan and execute. As humans, status quo is still a powerful drive. However, preserving the status quo has become the heroin of the corporate structure and it's time to break the cycle of addiction.
"We choose to move forward into a truly human way of organizations - not back to simpler times before technology."
Wow. This statement challenges the most primitive impulse we have - to yearn for the idealized yesteryear that never really existed. Humans have raised nostalgia to an art form. The problem with the "good old days" is they were never that good to begin with. The industrialized age treated human beings like cogs in the big wheel machine. People were interchangeable, like parts. Our entire language around management is mechanized. Why yearn for those good-old-days-that-weren't when right in front of you we have the ability to create something better than we've ever had before?
So, I tip my hat to Jamie and Maddie. You two have really hit on something here and I am a believer. I can't wait to see what's next.
Ah, yes Neo. You made the right choice. The red pill was the only way to go. Here is the scene where Morpheus offers Neo the choice....and here is an explanation about what the Matrix is.
(This is a book review of Humanize - How People-Centric Organizations Succeed in a Social World. Just so you know, I wasn't asked to write it and received no type of compensation for doing so. The Association Subculture Blog does not accept author pitches and only writes about books we dig.)
The Short of It
Buy this book.
The Long of It
Authors Maddie Grant and Jamie Notter have hit upon what is becoming the central question of our age - how can we be more human in the workplace. (And please - lacing it with Matrix references is catnip for nerds like myself. Finding the clips for this post wasted my entire morning and I'm heading to my DVD shelf after this post to get at the real deal.)
Frankly, I consume a lot of books during the year. I've read some great books this year, some mediocre ones and thrown a few turkeys on the scrap heap. Humanize is one of only three books that has earned a spot on my "re-read" list (and three is more "re-reads" than usual). The author's combined talents take us out of the out of the realm of the "is social media something we should do" (baffling to still hear that question) and pushes us into a new organizational world where trust, openness, generative action and courageous disposition reign. They offer hope to those of us who believed the cubicle-haunting manage-o-bots of the past had won.
The best part? They are clearly a part of our association management world but this book breaks away from the "association-centric" language we are all used to and is applicable to any organization - for-profit, non-profit or governmental. Kudos to them for breaking out of our orbit and spanning the gap to our other structural cousins. Hopefully they will still remember us when they hit the big time.
There are plenty of great, detailed reviews already out there so here are the top five sentences that resonated here at the Association Subculture the most.
"Each of us is part of several networks, and while the individual relationships are important, there is a quality of our relationship with the network as a whole that also requires attention and its own set of knowledge and skills."
Well said. In this section on Generative Behavior: Relationship Building Maddie and Jamie draw a distinction between interpersonal relationships and network relationships. Most of us are aware of the challenges inherent in navigating interpersonal relationships but it is important to realize the networks we are in are now interactive as well. Associations are beginning to realize this siloed, exclusively member focused ice floe they are stranded themselves on is drifting out to sea.
"Being courageous starts by admitting you don't know and is completed by taking bold and confident action."
What an insightful point. We have a false narrative in this country that courage is reserved for the few and is not accessible to the many. The minute you admit you don't know or you aren't sure, and you decide to act anyway - that is courage. It starts with one word, "Yes."
"Answers (and data) should be the beginning of the conversation, not the end."
Hear, hear! Yes, good data is important. Yes, big data is the next frontier. Yes, quantitative and qualitative data is critical to creating understanding. I regularly pursue appreciative inquiry research projects with associations because the data we get is so powerful. However, we have become data obsessed and in some cases outright paralyzed over the past few years. For the association community, I put some of the blame squarely on the "7 Measures of Success" book. I really don't believe Jim Collins would be thrilled with the "data-driven-strategies" monsters that were created in the wake of that book. We routinely misuse the medium.
"Freeing your mind means you are not willing to be constrained by the conventional wisdom, best practices and dogma of current organizational life."
Jamie and Maddie aren't being idealistic with this statement. They freely admit they are not talking about extreme freedom that is unconstrained by realities such as legal requirements, financial obligations and the like. They are talking about putting everything else that is not "essential and required" on the table. It takes skill and discipline to continually reinvent your world. To make smart choices about what to keep and what to discard. To mold and shape versus plan and execute. As humans, status quo is still a powerful drive. However, preserving the status quo has become the heroin of the corporate structure and it's time to break the cycle of addiction.
"We choose to move forward into a truly human way of organizations - not back to simpler times before technology."
Wow. This statement challenges the most primitive impulse we have - to yearn for the idealized yesteryear that never really existed. Humans have raised nostalgia to an art form. The problem with the "good old days" is they were never that good to begin with. The industrialized age treated human beings like cogs in the big wheel machine. People were interchangeable, like parts. Our entire language around management is mechanized. Why yearn for those good-old-days-that-weren't when right in front of you we have the ability to create something better than we've ever had before?
So, I tip my hat to Jamie and Maddie. You two have really hit on something here and I am a believer. I can't wait to see what's next.
Ah, yes Neo. You made the right choice. The red pill was the only way to go. Here is the scene where Morpheus offers Neo the choice....and here is an explanation about what the Matrix is.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Is Facebook Stealing Something Important From Us?
she says, leave me alone
tonight i just wanna stay home
she fills the pot with water and she drops in the bone
she says, i've got a darkness that i have to feed
i got a sadness that grows up around like a weed and
i'm not hurting anyone
i'm just spiraling in and then
she closes her eyes and hears the song begin again....Ani DiFranco, Jukebox
I am really not trying to be a bummer here, but I think we need to ask ourselves a question. Is Facebook stealing an important question from us? Is Facebook stealing the phrase, "How are you?" from our vocabulary?
I have been wrestling with this one for a few weeks now. Like all of us, I have just as many personal dramas as the next person. Illness, death, accidents, disappointments, etc. I tend to vacillate wildly between intensely private and ridiculously open. I have both clients and friends liberally mixed together in all my social media sites and no matter how many lists and circles I deal with, there is always some overlap that I can't get past.
Most of the time, I don't post exactly what is happening with me. I notice you all do the same. Chipper notices about travel or recipes, dogs and cats and kids is certainly more socially palatable than, "I cried my way through decorating my Christmas tree this year."
My fear is, social media gives us the illusion that we know what is going on in someone else's life. We really have gotten good at promoting the professional personas we have adopted, and we know what the rules used to be for "appropriate for the workplace." But social media is changing the equation. We are getting the idea that social media can actually give us emotional support. But getting that emotional support back from the system requires a radical transparency and openness that some of us aren't comfortable with yet. I'm not comfortable with it in my face to face personal life - some people have the whole story, some have half the story and others have none. What I wonder about is how we have created this expectation that Facebook is a window into our personal lives, when really it's only a window into what we choose to share. Maybe Facebook isn't telling us the whole story. But we think it is. And so, we stop asking, "How are you," because we think we already know the answer.
The past few months have been particularly challenging for me personally. But I find myself posting things on Facebook and Twitter just like normal. Links to articles, blogs, stuff you would normally see. One day, I kind of lost it a little bit and posted on Twitter that I needed a minute because I was having a bad week. That was my way of saying, "Things are not okay here." Stephanie Reeves, God love her, reached out and gave me a little encouragement. And when I got that Tweet, I realized it was what I had been desperately needing and had been unable to ask for. Support.
A few days later, I was looking at my Facebook feed. Nobody would ever know what is really happening with me by reading it. It seemed so false, even to me. Like I didn't even recognize myself. I seemed like a stranger. So I decided to post on Facebook that we had lost a friend of ours in a house fire. That was what my "needing a minute" Tweet was all about - I had just heard the news. But I wrestled with that Facebook post. Will people think I am looking for sympathy? Will people think I'm just being dramatic? Isn't this harsh to see in the middle of dogs dressed as Santa and hey-can't-wait-to-see-my-family-over-the-holidays messages?
Finally, I decided there was really no way around it. It seems like it's up to us to tell because nobody seems to ask anymore. I almost felt compelled to post just so people would stop laboring under the false impression that everything is fine with me. I am still unconvinced that everyone needs to know all the details of my personal life or my moods but I have rededicated myself to making sure I keep asking the question, "How are you?" to my friends and colleagues. I might not get the full answer, but at least I've given someone the opportunity to say, "Not good....I wish things were better...." I will be watching more carefully for people who post frequently yet suddenly disappear. I will be watching more carefully for subtle hints and clues that might indicate someone is reaching out for support, but isn't comfortable with telling the entire story yet.
I imagine I will continue to wrestle with the line between public and private. I am no closer to the answer now than I was three weeks ago. I haven't embraced the idea that everyone needs to know everything all of the time. However, I did feel less lonely when I was able to share. And that felt good.
All I know for sure we just can't assume everyone is fine based on what we see in social media. We have to remember to genuinely ask, "How are you?" and listen to the answer. I believe our friends, business associates and members will appreciate us for it.
Here is the link to Ani DiFranco and a live version of Jukebox for those of you who can't see the embedded
tonight i just wanna stay home
she fills the pot with water and she drops in the bone
she says, i've got a darkness that i have to feed
i got a sadness that grows up around like a weed and
i'm not hurting anyone
i'm just spiraling in and then
she closes her eyes and hears the song begin again....Ani DiFranco, Jukebox
I am really not trying to be a bummer here, but I think we need to ask ourselves a question. Is Facebook stealing an important question from us? Is Facebook stealing the phrase, "How are you?" from our vocabulary?
I have been wrestling with this one for a few weeks now. Like all of us, I have just as many personal dramas as the next person. Illness, death, accidents, disappointments, etc. I tend to vacillate wildly between intensely private and ridiculously open. I have both clients and friends liberally mixed together in all my social media sites and no matter how many lists and circles I deal with, there is always some overlap that I can't get past.
Most of the time, I don't post exactly what is happening with me. I notice you all do the same. Chipper notices about travel or recipes, dogs and cats and kids is certainly more socially palatable than, "I cried my way through decorating my Christmas tree this year."
My fear is, social media gives us the illusion that we know what is going on in someone else's life. We really have gotten good at promoting the professional personas we have adopted, and we know what the rules used to be for "appropriate for the workplace." But social media is changing the equation. We are getting the idea that social media can actually give us emotional support. But getting that emotional support back from the system requires a radical transparency and openness that some of us aren't comfortable with yet. I'm not comfortable with it in my face to face personal life - some people have the whole story, some have half the story and others have none. What I wonder about is how we have created this expectation that Facebook is a window into our personal lives, when really it's only a window into what we choose to share. Maybe Facebook isn't telling us the whole story. But we think it is. And so, we stop asking, "How are you," because we think we already know the answer.
The past few months have been particularly challenging for me personally. But I find myself posting things on Facebook and Twitter just like normal. Links to articles, blogs, stuff you would normally see. One day, I kind of lost it a little bit and posted on Twitter that I needed a minute because I was having a bad week. That was my way of saying, "Things are not okay here." Stephanie Reeves, God love her, reached out and gave me a little encouragement. And when I got that Tweet, I realized it was what I had been desperately needing and had been unable to ask for. Support.
A few days later, I was looking at my Facebook feed. Nobody would ever know what is really happening with me by reading it. It seemed so false, even to me. Like I didn't even recognize myself. I seemed like a stranger. So I decided to post on Facebook that we had lost a friend of ours in a house fire. That was what my "needing a minute" Tweet was all about - I had just heard the news. But I wrestled with that Facebook post. Will people think I am looking for sympathy? Will people think I'm just being dramatic? Isn't this harsh to see in the middle of dogs dressed as Santa and hey-can't-wait-to-see-my-family-over-the-holidays messages?
Finally, I decided there was really no way around it. It seems like it's up to us to tell because nobody seems to ask anymore. I almost felt compelled to post just so people would stop laboring under the false impression that everything is fine with me. I am still unconvinced that everyone needs to know all the details of my personal life or my moods but I have rededicated myself to making sure I keep asking the question, "How are you?" to my friends and colleagues. I might not get the full answer, but at least I've given someone the opportunity to say, "Not good....I wish things were better...." I will be watching more carefully for people who post frequently yet suddenly disappear. I will be watching more carefully for subtle hints and clues that might indicate someone is reaching out for support, but isn't comfortable with telling the entire story yet.
I imagine I will continue to wrestle with the line between public and private. I am no closer to the answer now than I was three weeks ago. I haven't embraced the idea that everyone needs to know everything all of the time. However, I did feel less lonely when I was able to share. And that felt good.
All I know for sure we just can't assume everyone is fine based on what we see in social media. We have to remember to genuinely ask, "How are you?" and listen to the answer. I believe our friends, business associates and members will appreciate us for it.
Here is the link to Ani DiFranco and a live version of Jukebox for those of you who can't see the embedded
video code.
.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Trampoline Strategy
In all seriousness folks, I needed a laugh today and of course, YouTube had one ready for me.
Doesn't this feel familiar? This video just seems to sum up the process of innovation for me. Tussling. Discovery. Experimentation. Naysayers. Dismissal. But....let's face it, sometimes you just have to keep jumping no matter who doesn't want you to.....
Here's hoping you find a way to be inspired by a new discovery this week.....
Here's the link for those of you who can't see the embedded video - Foxes Jumping on Trampoline
Doesn't this feel familiar? This video just seems to sum up the process of innovation for me. Tussling. Discovery. Experimentation. Naysayers. Dismissal. But....let's face it, sometimes you just have to keep jumping no matter who doesn't want you to.....
Here's hoping you find a way to be inspired by a new discovery this week.....
Here's the link for those of you who can't see the embedded video - Foxes Jumping on Trampoline
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