Boing Boing

Two new reports: online ads will boom, as will ranks of "ex-bloggers" By Xeni Jardin Xeni Jardin: The popularity of blogging may reach its peak in 2007, at which point there may be as many as 100 million bloggers online -- according to a newly released Gartner report. Ars Technica has an analysis post up: Chief Gartner fellow Daryl Plummer pointed out that "a lot of people have been in and out of this thing. Everyone thinks they have something to say, until they're put on stage and asked to say it." Indeed, most people who start blogs don't keep them up forever, and Gartner says that there are now 200 million ex-bloggers. Link. Also out today, a Communications Industry Forecast report (Link) which predicts that online advertising will be the largest ad sector by 2011, outpacing dead-tree newspapers and broadcast television. Adario Strange at Wired News sees flaws in this report and others like it, and blogs: As for the future of newspapers, that's where this report, and many others like it, experienced a blind spot. The near-future emergence of electronic paper as the new medium of newspapers continues to go mostly ignored by analysts who should know better. Newspapers and magazine won't die, but the materials we use to read them will. Link

CAREER: Managerial Focus

"Avoid being among those who mistake activity for forward motion."

By Jim Stroup

The two great elements of competitive advantage, so clearly obvious yet so elusive, are mission and execution. Simply put, know what it is you do, then do it. Very few organizations are able to develop even an adequate focus on these elements. Those that do possess an inherent competitive advantage of inestimable value. It is a tool that offers an intellectual framework and an organizational sense of balance, increasing both momentum and agility.

KISS

Albert Einstein purportedly said, “Physics should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Not just physics, but everything should be no simpler than possible--and no more complicated than necessary. Unfortunately, it is exceedingly difficult to find, and to consistently navigate, the safe zone between. Managers are often seduced by oversimplified formulas touted as solutions, but which inevitably prove to be shallow and inflexible. On the other hand, there are temptations in every quarter driving us to overcomplicate. While we often reel with disappointment from one simplistic promise to another, it is the insidious tendency to overcomplicate that proves the more enduring and damaging.

There is great satisfaction in creating complex procedures and Byzantine organizations. It helps convince managers that they are intelligent and accomplished. It also constitutes a sort of flak which they can throw up to confuse those, whether analysts or shareholders, who keep pressing them for results. But the truth is that these ungainly concoctions are not the result of managerial brilliance but the sclerotic accretions of ill-discipline.

Montaigne said, “No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.” Unfortunately, these days, an awful lot of wind is used up in just identifying the port. Forget the poetry and the lofty rhetoric. Leave the consultant-facilitated vision-drafting sessions for senior executives in glamorous off-site locations. Let your misguided competitors indulge in unveiling the marble-engraved products of such nonsense in their corporate headquarters. As for you, keep it simple.

The best way to find out what you do is to ask those most likely to know (and, by the way, senior executives are typically not in this group). Ask your front-line employees. Ask your sales staff. Ask your vendors and your customers. Ask your competitors. You might be surprised--even inspired--to learn what others think it is that you do. Then, ask certain of them, especially your customers, what they want you to do, what they would like to be able to gain from your services. Ask them what problems they identify with your organization.

This is the critical step, so do it right. The greatest--and most common--error made in problem-solving is failing to properly frame, or define, the problem. Take the time to learn what object you should be directing your attention to. Avoid being among those who mistake activity for forward motion.

The lazy and the stupid

Years ago, a German field commander observed that since all military officers are either smart or stupid, and also either energetic or lazy, it is relatively simple, really, to classify them for assignment. The smart and energetic ones, for example, treat every tasking with equal importance, and they work as hard as can be on all of them. As a consequence, they make great staff officers: devoted, tireless, and, best of all, undiscriminating.

The smart and lazy ones, on the other hand, make great commanders. They prioritize with ruthless institutional selfishness, determining which of their taskings are really vital to mission accomplishment, focusing on those, and, with the most blithe disinterest, simply ignoring the rest.

As for the stupid officers, the lazy ones can be tolerated, but the stupid and energetic ones are a grave danger, and need to be discovered and weeded out before they destroy the unit from within.

There certainly is an often-missed organizational lesson in the moral of the stupid and energetic manager, but let's stick here with that of the smart and lazy one. Managers like this are more accurately seen as disciplined and focused. What, exactly, is their secret?

Managerial laziness

They have developed command focus. This is the threefold ability, or discipline, to: 1) keep your eye on the goal, 2) prioritize by working only on those activities that advance you toward your goal, and 3) prioritize by ignoring all the distractions which will run you aground short of your goal.

Remember, this is really only practical when the validity and efficacy of the goal is inherently sensible and widely acknowledged and agreed. If your organization's strategic vision and operational goals are only found hanging, impressively framed, in the lobby, then forget it: You're doomed to drift aimlessly and to wash up on the first reef you strike, confusing it for your destination. If, however, your strategy and goals are sharp and straightforward, then you know how to identify the fair winds from the foul, and how to trim your organizational sails to them.

The flip side of activity

Prioritizing doesn't mean what to do first, or what to do in which order. It means what to do, and what to ignore. The hardest part, and the one that actually requires the greatest and most ruthless discipline, is to be inactive where that is vital to advancing (or, more typically, to removing impediments to the advancement of) your organization toward its goals. These temptations come from both without and within.

Warren Buffet once remarked that CEO’s must know when to be active--and when to resist the temptation to act. When everyone is doing M&A deals, downsizing, globalizing, process re-engineering, aggressively expanding their markets, “visioning,” or the like, maybe you should just take a look at your business model and, if you're on track, stay there. Your obligations are to your shareholders and your business--not to the press or the consultants banging on your door. Your goal is to define what is good for your business and to execute it--not to let others make those determinations for you, and to simply slot in alongside all the other cows in the herd stampeding along, panicked to avoid missing the latest managerial fad.

But avoiding ill-disciplined activity within your organization is just as important. Discipline is defined as doing that which advances you toward accomplishment of your valid goals. Is your method of operating your business doing that? Take a look at your procedures, your reporting requirements, and your intra-organizational communications. Which are really necessary, and which not? Which actually inform and advance organizational productivity, and which simply satisfy an ill-disciplined and ill-defined instinct for accumulation of irrelevant detail and imposition of pointless control?

The competitive organization's managerial culture is one that implicitly subjects every proposed activity to this sort of scrutiny--and not just by managers, but by employees. Everyone should know what the organization's goals are, and how what they are doing contributes to achieving them. If they don't see that connection, they should be encouraged to question the tasking. Doing so will reinforce the goals, and either remove pointless activities or increase organizational energy directed at relevant ones.

The competitive organization has the institutional discipline to be both smart and lazy. Does yours?


Jim Stroup is an organizational leadership and strategy consultant, and the author of Managing Leadership. See http://www.managingleadership.com, or e-mail jhs@managingleadership.com.

Photo by Michal Koralewski via stock.xchng

CAREER: Leading Pain-Free, Productive Meetings

"To keep difficult people from derailing your meeting, intervene in advance. Speak with them one-on-one so that they can vent or discuss what’s on their minds outside of the meeting context."






By Suzanne Bates

Do you think all meetings are painful, time wasting, poorly run and unproductive torture sessions? If you hate meetings, you’re not alone. Practically everyone does, and although businesses have to run meetings, very often, meetings run businesses. More than just a drag, bad meetings can have a tremendous negative impact on productivity and the bottom line.

You may think that the only thing worse than sitting through meetings is having to lead them. After all, you don’t want all that wrath and boredom directed at you, right? Rather than dreading running meetings, though, you can embrace the opportunity to polish up and show off your leadership skills. The style in which you lead a meeting will establish its tone and influence the meeting culture. People will take their cues from you, adopting your good practices.

Different types of meetings require different approaches. You must be flexible and adapt to the purpose and participants in a meeting. While there are different meeting styles, some practices and policies make all meetings better. The following five steps will enable you to lead great meetings:

1. Determine purpose and prepare for productivity

As the meeting leader, you must determine why the meeting is taking place in order to know who to invite, what to put on the agenda, how long to discuss each item and even what methods to use to come to a decision. Productive meetings begin with good pre-meeting communication. Several days or even weeks in advance of the meeting, call, e-mail or speak in person with influential people. Identify which issues will need to be addressed. This checking-in process will help you to deal with objections and build consensus.

2. Write an agenda and stick to it

Without an agenda, participants cannot prepare, so time is lost while people read or catch up. Missions fall by the wayside as people talk about whatever is on their minds instead. As the meeting wanders, some may start up whispering side conversations and anyone dominant enough can easily hijack the meeting. Agenda-less meetings often must end before decisions are made, or decisions are made after key people have to leave. Sound familiar?

Realize that you can’t solve all the problems of the world in one meeting. If you decide to spend 10 minutes on something, and the 10 minutes is up, it’s your responsibility to move on. You may be amazed to find what a difference just starting and ending the meeting on time and keeping it clipping along will make in participants’ morale and willingness to participate now and in future meetings.

3. Encourage discussion and participation

Your most valuable resource is the collective knowledge of others in the organization. A good leader encourages participation in order to harness others’ creative power. Everyone will benefit when you make the atmosphere safe and easy for everyone—even the shy ones—to get involved.

Take note of those who remain silent, and make it a point to ask them what they think. You don’t want those who disagree with you or with the group’s decisions to not say anything, and then leave the meeting and attempt to undermine the decisions later.

Encourage participation by saying:

· “Stan, you shook your head just now. What else do we need to consider?”
· “I would like to hear from Amanda on this.”
· “Jack, you and I talked about something before the meeting. Would you share it?”
· “Do we have all the issues on the table?

4. Listen actively

Listening well and being able to provide a brief but accurate review of what has been said sets great leaders apart from the rest. To summarize effectively, you must hear everything that is said, and even more important, notice what is not said. Take notes or listen in “note-taking” mindset to key words and phrases. Put ideas you hear into the context of the whole discussion, and you will find that this creates accountability. Ask questions and then truly listen to the answers.

Questions that will yield valuable insights might begin with:

· “What’s your reaction to…?”
· “What’s your view on…?”
· “What led you to…?”
· “How could we…?”

5. Manage conflict and deal with difficult people

As a meeting leader, if you ask good questions and make it safe to disagree, participants will debate issues on the merits. You can’t allow discussions to get personal or let issues go unresolved; otherwise, you risk damage to the whole organization, not just the individuals involved. Meeting leaders must promote positive conflict while avoiding personal attacks.

While debate is usually healthy for organizations, some people in the group will test the limits. Because they are angry or feel ignored, they will argue miniscule points, be unable to see others’ views, or fail to recognize the value of compromise. They may be poor listeners or have hidden agendas. Most of the time, difficult people are unaware of how they affect others, or what a serious impact they have on their own careers as well as on the effectiveness of their teams.

To keep difficult people from derailing your meeting, intervene in advance. Speak with them one-on-one so that they can vent or discuss what’s on their minds outside of the meeting context. During the meeting, allow them to have their say, and even ask a few questions, and then move on. Remember, your role as a leader is to enforce time limits.

Learning meetings skills leads to great opportunities

Good meeting leadership is not as common as it should be. Few people have the skills, and even fewer are taught how to lead meetings effectively. Rather, like most of us, they sit through many bad meetings, develop a lot of terrible habits, and then, when it’s their turn to step up and lead, they just don’t have the skills to do it.

Your ability to run meetings well is a direct reflection of your leadership skills. Your staff, your peers, and the people you report to will all judge how you lead meetings and, in turn, whether your meetings accomplish results. In other words, your leadership skills will have a direct impact on the organization’s bottom line because the meeting is not an end in itself; it is a vehicle to accomplish the work of the organization. By following these five steps, you can learn how to lead productive, pain-free meetings, demonstrate that you have these leadership qualities, and position yourself for promotions and advancement in your organization.

Suzanne Bates is president and CEO of Bates Communications and author of “Speak Like a CEO: Secrets to Commanding Attention and Getting Results.” See http://www.bates-communications.com/ or call 800-908-8239.

Photo from stock.xchng