BeConnected

A Whole New Mind Review at the BeTuitive Blog

BeTuitive designer Kat O'Connor joins the BeTuitive Blog with a really interesting review of Daniel Pink's new book A Whole New Mind

In A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink’s operating theory is that we are coming upon a new business and economic revolution, and the business world is moving from the Information Age (based upon the “knowledge worker” whose primary skill set is logical, analytical, and data-oriented) to a Conceptual Age – an age of designers, empathizers, of people skilled in building relationships among people and synthesizing details and concepts into a new and original whole.

Sounds like another must read. Read the rest of Kat's review and see if you don't agree.

Technorati Tags: BeTuitive | Daniel Pink | Kat O'Conner | A Whole New Mind

Business Blogging Author Shel Israel Shares Some Insight

Israel's interview is mostly promotion for the business blogging book he coauthored with Robert Scoble but he does share this one excellent insight:

How can publishers specifically benefit from the blogging revolution? What are the major mistakes that publishers make when thinking about blogs?
Digital publishers as well as the traditional kind need to understand the fundamental shift from a broadcast model of “I talk, you listen” to a conversational model of “I talk first, then listen to you.” This is a huge change that benefits everyone because we all usually prefer a conversation to a lecture. Most major mistakes will be made by publishers who either try to game the blogging system with gimmicks, posting false comments and by not carefully listening to what people have to say to them even when the comments are critical.

True very true. What do you think? Seen any good corporate blogging?
Publish.com: Why Corporate Blogs are Boring

Technorati Tags: corporate blogging | Scobleizer | Robert Scoble | blog | Publish.com | book | book writing | Shel Israel

Two Things

This month's review for the BeTuitive Business Book Club is up over at the BeTuitive Blog. Another good review, Susan.

I also want to remind you to go ahead and add yourself to the map of BeConnected readers on Frappr.

Technorati Tags: BeConnected | BeTuitive | blog | book | book club | book review | customer insights | Frappr | mapping | maps

Meeting Etiquette: Part of Ongoing Relationship Development With Coworkers

I've been going to a lot of meetings lately. There has been a lot said about conducting good meetings in the productivity blog world. Beyond the basics of agendas and other meeting specifics. I think meetings are a direct reflection on the leader not just the project. Many people don't consider the future when they plan and conduct meetings. Those you're asking to attend the current meeting are probably the same coworkers you will invite to meetings on the next project. Here are some thoughts on meetings with that in mind.

Clarity of Purpose. - Invited parties will be sure to ask questions about the meeting and the items to be discussed. Be ready with answers. If your answers are the content of the meeting you may not need the meeting just email, blog posts, wikis or other forms of communication. Meetings are about discussions not brain dumps. If you invite people to a info dump that they could get by reading an email, a report or an internal blog they won't want to come to your future info dumps meetings.
Reason Plus Details - I have been invited to a few meetings with just a title and a date and time. No hint as to why or what is being requested or discussed. It's too easy to send those Outlook meeting invites with too little information. Example: Project Y meeting, Tuesday 3 pm vs. Deliverable planning meeting for Project Y. Seeking input and ideas on the design of the deliverables. If your invited parties have to seek more information about the meeting before they are able to decide on attending you're wasting their time right off the bat.
At Your Service - Pay attention to who you are inviting to a given meeting. If your meeting includes those outside your office you should coordinate with them to see when they are most available for a meeting. For regular meetings periodically solicit feedback on the scheduling of the meeting. Bend your staff or team meetings around your workflow not the other way around. This honors people's time and keeps an organization agile.
Protect your Reputation - The quality of your meetings from invitation through to follow-up are a reflection of your professionalism. If your meetings are unorganized, behind schedule, unfocused, poorly run your coworkers will be less inclined to attend future meetings. You know, the one you have to have because nothing got done from the last one.
Appreciation - Be sure to value and appreciate the time and input that your meeting participants gave your meeting. You have a wide variety of options for how to thank people. Personal emails, group emails, blog posts, hand written notes, personal visits to their workspace, voicemail messages, etc. Invest the time and attention to appropriately appreciate people who come to your meetings.
Mentor those who don't do it right - people aren't born with(and seldom taught) the skills to plan and lead good meetings. When it goes poorly for your coworkers or reports take the time to mentor them to improve their meeting skills. You'll directly benefit next time you are in their meeting.

Of course, the golden rule is the guiding principle. Don't do or ask anything of your meeting participants that you don't like when others do it to you. How do you feel about wacky hats, noisemakers, seating hierarchies, agendas, meeting locations, etc.? Chances are others feel the same way.

Technorati Tags: communication | email | meeting invites | meeting planner | meetings | MS Outlook | meeting etiquette

Book Review for Email Newsletter Publishers

If you haven't seen it already the latest BeTuitive Book Club review is up over at the BeTuitive Blog. I am not saying what it is but if you are doing an email newsletter or considering it you don't want to miss it. That Susan Fisher knows her stuff and gives a worthy review.

The BeTuitive Book Club is part of the ongoing effort to bring you high quality relevant content for our own monthly newsletter. If you find that concise easy to read book reviews are valuable guides to help you know which marketing and business books are worth your time, you should sign-up for the free monthly newsletter.

Technorati Tags: book review | newsletter | BeTuitive | book club | Susan Fisher | book | email | emarketing

Personal R&D: Reading and Discovery

Your plane was just delayed and now you have 30 minutes on your hands. What to do?

Sure you could get a coffee, browse a bookstore, watch Hurricane news on the overhead monitors or....

You can deliver as much value to your network as you possibly can. Open your email address book. Scan the list and look for connections waiting to be made. Who should be introduced. What news stories, magazine articles or blog posts have you read recently that should be forwarded to someone in your network. Don't just tickle people for the sake of keeping the relationship live. Always deliver value to the relationship. Build the understanding in your contact's mind that communication from you whether it's a meeting, email or phone call will always be worth their time.

How can you constantly be ready with something for everyone? Well, you can't. Not everyone all the time but you can be ready for the right people at the right time.

The key is managing your personal R&D. In this case reading and discovery.

Read Strategically - Let your reading list grow out of your relationship network. When considering what to read consider who you know who is reading this same thing. Scan the desks, coffee tables, bookcases, carry-on bags, purses, briefcases, etc. of your coworkers, customers, prospects, competitors, etc. Discovering what someone is reading will give you clues to how they think and thus how you can work with them and add value to their lives.

For example: You're on a flight and you meet an executive across the aisle. She's in an industry you don't know a lot about. You sense there is an opportunity to follow-up and open a sales conversation with her. You notice a copy of a trade journal tucked into her laptop bag. After the flight find and read that trade journal so that your follow-up communications can include discussions of issues relevant to her business. She will feel that you value the information she values. It's a good first step to building a relationship.

Discovery - Cultivate your curiosity. Develop your power of observation. Make a game of it. Pretend you are an intelligence officer and practice noticing everything in your environment. Look for connections, patterns and cause and effect relationships. Watch human behavior. Notice advertising. Study new products when you come across them. Meet new people. All these things will develop your social skills and help you understand differences in how people behave and react to what you say and do. Most importantly actively noticing, observing and analyzing your environment and the people around you will help to make and keep you interesting. You'll always have insightful stories, humorous anecdotes and fresh ideas to share with the people you know and those you meet.

For example: You're in sales and marketing for a software company. On the subway ride to the meeting you notice just how many people have white wires running out of their ears. iPod listeners. When walking through a customer's office you notice that many of the young staffers are listening to iPods. In conversation with your contact you learn about half a dozen training needs the company has that surround your products. On the way back to your office an iPod ad reminds you of the article you read last night about podcasting. The light bulb goes on! The next day you propose a series of podcasts addressing the training issues you learned about the day before.

It's obvious that people are drawn to those who they know are interesting, funny and insightful. It's more important than ever to be that person. Being knowledgeable is the baseline. Being entertaining, insightful and helpful is more important than ever.

Technorati Tags: R&D | airport | common sense | airplane seats | magazine | reading | B2B | airlines | communication | networking | book | trade journals | hurricane | iPod | Podcast | Podcasting

Seth Nails Part of the Whole Non-Fiction Book Thing

Seth covers important ground in understanding the whole world of non-fiction(including business) book world. What needs to be added here is more information about pitching your books to bloggers.

Don't get me wrong. This is a must read as the principles that Seth points out need to be understood. He's right on the mark when he says:

If you don't promote it, no one will. If you don't have a better strategy than, “Let's get on Oprah” you should stop now. If you don't have an asset already--a permission base of thousands or tens of thousands of people, a popular blog, thousands of employees, a personal relationship with Willard Scott... then it's too late to start building that asset once you start working on a book.

Seth's advice:

Build an asset. Large numbers of influential people who read your blog or read your emails or watch your TV show or love your restaurant or or or...

Then, put your idea into a format where it will spread fast. That could be an ebook (a free one) or a pamphlet (a cheap one--the Joy of Jello sold millions and millions of copies at a dollar or less).

Then, if your idea catches on, you can sell the souvenir edition. The book. The thing people keep on their shelf or lend out or get from the library. Books are wonderful (I own too many!) but they're not necessarily the best vessel for spreading your idea.

Are you seeing this, people? You need to build a permission asset, an email list or a audience of subscribers to your blog. The only way to do that is to provide the highest quality blog or email newsletter that you can.

Seth Godin: Advice for Authors

Technorati Tags: BeTuitive | blog | book | book selling | book writing | marketing | permission marketing | Seth Godin | viral | WOMM | word of mouth | writing

BeTuitive Book Club Selection for July

Susan Fisher reviews “Contagious Success: Spreading High Performance Throughout Your Organization” by Susan Lucia Annunzio over at our sister blog BeTuitive. It's a good review of what looks to be an interesting read.

Technorati Tags: BeTuitive | blog | book club | high performance | success | Susan Lucia Annunzio

A New Place to Spot BeTuitive Insights

Ellen Finkelstein has written a new book in the "...for Dummies" series. We invite you to check out Syndicating Web Sites with Rss Feeds for Dummies. You'll find Betuitive Marketing, LLC quoted in chapter one. The information comes from the article "Blogs: What Are They Good For?"

tags: Ellen Finkelstein | for dummies books | RSS | syndication | BeTuitive
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BeTuitive Book Review: On Bullshit

At BeTuitive we have a monthly book review. This month e-newsletter designer Kat O'Conner shares her review of On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt. If you have this book or are about to purchase this one I suggest you click through and read what she has to say.

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tags: book review | harry frankfurt | kat o'conner | BeTuitive
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