What Is School For?

Here is a remarkable 17 minute video of Seth Godin, giving a TEDxYouth presentation at the Brooklyn Free School riffing about the purpose of school.

Some of Seth’s ideas that may be unfamiliar, but nothing doesn’t make sense, showing what happens when someone gets beyond the excuses that pass for thinking about education, focusing on a rigorous, energetic thought experiment.

A pure delight. 

Wading In The Streams

Google Plus streams (Posts) were a new technology. I’ve evolved some practices to make it easier to use and more valuable for me.

I already follow sixty blogs on Google Reader. I’m reading for my own development, but also forward a fair amount, say one out of three, to friends and customers who I know have an interest in a subject. You can see the blogs I subscribe to on the bottom of the right column on this blog, where they are titled Good Ideas. I blog on Sales Lab Posts and Through The Browser.

The Google Plus Profile stream is my outgoing stream that I send. The Google Plus Home stream is incoming from the Google Plus pages I follow and is not visible to others.You should see one on your Plus page.

Outbound

If I write something, I have three circles I send it to Team, Friends, and Acquaintances. That goes to their Plus streams. I have sent some posts to Team alone. Friends were originally humor contributors.

I also include Public for anyone who comes looking at my stream and as a record of anything I originate.

If I want a stream post to go to someone’s email (higher priority) I send it to an email not associated with their Plus page.

Inbound

When someone I’m following on Plus writes something that I really like, I follow a similar practice, first send to Public for a record in my stream for me, then usually to people who I know will be interested, either to their Plus page for their stream or to another email address. Maybe one time in a hundred I will send something written by someone else to my whole list.

A difference between reading Plus stream and Reader is that Plus stream posts come most recent first. Reader allows me to read by author, which is especially good when I am looking for a previous post. Plus is more entertaining, and less formal – many of the people I follow on Plus don’t have a blog. I follow blogs and news outlets on Reader.

Posting Practices

I develop an idea in a blog post, and then expand from my platform to other platforms.

If I want to extend someone else’s idea, that goes to a comment under their post.

If I want to disagree with someone, I let it sit for an hour. If I still want to disagree, I let it sit for a day. If I still want to disagree I let it sit forever. Disagreement usually comes back as a positive idea that merits a blog post.

If I like something and have nothing to add, I’ll + it or like it, whatever a platform will allow.

What are your practices?

Welcome to Hogwarts!

People look for what to expect before they try something new. They want us to signal a level of excitement, clues to what is good, something they can believe in.

When was the last time you met a car salesman as exciting as a car commercial?

“But I was taught to listen to the customer...” So was the door at Macy’s, but at least it opens as I walk up to it. Show some action, some optimism!

The bad news is not all offerings are leaders in every way. The good news is no buyer has time to listen to everything. They are looking for someone to give them the buyer’s summary. What you choose to communicate is important.

The losers call it “spin,” but I’d rather have spin than a depressed definition. If you talk about false things, you’ll be discovered, but I can define a belief structure that differs markedly from what the doubters think, that customers will use to defend their choice forever. Optimism becomes the reality for those taking action.

The crime is when internal representatives are too tired or too “professional” to extoll the good. Why show up for work, when you could just fax it in?

I have been accused of only representing exciting offers. Here’s a secret, they weren’t exciting before I got there, and that excitement became a key part of each buyer’s beliefs.

I was part of the name tag table for a user group, and the people from the sponsoring company were just bored, tired, worn out.

Did I understand their best whatisit? I’m an English major! Would you like fries with that?

But as we got each person registered, tagged and goody bagged, as they walked into the main show I kept saying, “Welcome to Hogwarts!”

Smiles, straightening up, looking forward.

Setting Expectations. The neighborly thing to do.

BOTR - The Other Side Of Project Management

I'm fascinated by people who can tell when others aren't doing their part. Defining fault is to them a higher value alternative to contributing.

I go into a project figuring I'll do it all, if it comes down to that. Now that’s a key decision criteria!

Get more than half of the project team feeling that way and you've got it licked. Leadership is not exhortation or blaming, but demonstration.

If you can get everybody pointing fingers, you've got a classic project meltdown. "I don't think it was my wasting time in the constant meetings, some other guy who musta caused it!"

Lord Of The Rings was thirteen losers who could never complete the project...but they did. If you want to read how it would have happened had they used best practice project blamemaking, get a copy of Bored Of The Rings, now available as an ebook.

Join us at DevFestDC September 28^th, for awesome new technologies and resources for building projects and companies!

Rules Baytus

The term for someone fascinated with rules, not changing outcomes, obsessing over imagined possible violations. A spectator at life.

Their work product is a shifting, unprioritized list of what could go wrong, real and imagined. It’s a task that doesn’t ever need to end, a full time occupation without effort.

I was playing in a golf tournament and was admiring an old guy’s line of chatter. One of our group took me aside and said the guy was a cheater, he fluffed his ball.

I said, “That’s no problem, it’s just a stroke. Did you call it?”

He said he had never personally seen it, but he had heard...

After the round, one of my playing partners was describing my birdie. His wife asked me, “Did you cheat?” Lady, I didn’t hit the ball enough times to cheat.

I was ordering a keg. Someone, not attached to the group, asked me, “Did you consider the less fortunate?”

I said I was ordering a keg. What did they want me to consider? Again, “Did you consider the less fortunate?” I missed their point, again.

This gets into focus. If you don’t choose your path, you probably won’t get where you want to go.

In crew settings, I watch some people attach value to delaying launch. I guess that’s because when no one is moving forward, they look like they are making an equal contribution. After others start producing, the rules baytus’ lack of contribution becomes obvious.

Launch is required to find out which possibilities are real. Completion is getting past the obstacles, forecast and random, that truly stand between you and the goal.

Time costs, rust never sleeps.

What did I miss?

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