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On Your Way to the TOP: How to Get a Promotion

"It's the everyday things you do that demonstrate you have it, beyond your technical abilities," she said.

Boundaries are Liberating - Micromanagement is Not

In my last post, we discussed the requisite components of an effective task assignment.  Anyone who has lived under the opression of micromanagment might look at the level of detail in the task assignment format I shared and conclude that it would squelch creativity rather than facilitate it. Waste not Want Not When ambiguous assignments are given, one of [...]

The Retiring Baby Boomers

In most of the developed nations there is a large of number of people in the Baby Boom generation who are getting ready to retire from the workplace. This will have a significant impact on the fiscal health of these countries.

78 million Americans are in the Baby Boom generation, and they have just begun to retire. Spending on retirement and medical benefits for them is about 7% of US economic output today. It will increase to 13% by year 2030.

In the graph above, the bulge in the middle represents the 78 million Baby Boomers, and because there are a lot more of them in the generations that follow, when they retire there will be fewer workers active in the work force to cover the cost of retiree health care and pensions.

Federal Reserve Chairmen Ben Bernanke refers to this as a ‘vicious cycle’ that will result in rising government deficits and interest rates. Since the cost of health care for older persons is often much higher than for other age groups, the financial burden will be significant.

As in Japan, this is potentially a significant source of inter-generational conflict about social priorities and government spending. It will have a large impact on government policy in taxation, health care, immigration , and in all the financial services industries.
This blog post is number six in a series on key trends for innovators.

How to lead in a downturn. The most important lesson of all

It occurs to me a lot of us are leading through a downturn - tough trading conditions, whatever you want to call it - for the first time. So, Douglas Adams' advice from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, is the best of all. It's on the button below.



Those of us who are old enough to have been through previous downturns are still here. You will be too. And so will your organization if you lead it right (no pressure, then). Hint: part of your leadership job now is helping others not to panic, too. People panic when they feel things are out of their control. You help fix that by clearly setting out what's happening, consulting with them on how the organization should respond to emerging trading conditions, and doing what you say. 'Consulting' doesn't mean a long drawn-out consultation process. It means using the rapport and open communications channels you have established with individuals and people en masse to let people know where things are going, and involve them in adjusting to get there: you need their agreement and buy-in, as always, and then they'll help you get there.

New CEOs: Why So Many Fail

"One ... study found that almost half of US companies with more than $500 million dollars of annual revenue had no meaningful succession plan," says Charan.

Wired 1.02: Crypto Rebels

"As the Cold War drifts into deep memory, one might think that the American body charged with keeping our secret codes and breaking the codes of our enemies -- the National Security Agency (NSA) -- might finally breathe easy for the first time in its 30-year existence. Instead, it is sweating out its worst nightmare."

Guest Article: “How To Be An Effective Communicator,” by Nido Qubein

How To Be An Effective Communicator by Nido Qubein A young man whom I had known since he was in high school stopped by to see me and proudly display his new MBA. “I know a master’s degree alone doesn’t guarantee success,” he said. “What do you think is the most important quality for someone who wants to [...]

The Robot Divide


When people receive care from robots, what emotions will develop in these relationships? Will people come to love their robots, as they love dogs and cats and horses? Will they love them as people love spouses and children?

David Levy recently published a book entitled "Love + Sex with Robots," in which he predicts that sex and marriage between humans and robots will eventually become common.

So how close will we get to science fiction's depictions? Will Data (from Star Trek) actually exist one day?

Today we talk about the "digital divide," the haves and have-nots when it comes to computers. When will we start talking about the "robot divide"?
This blog post is number five in a series on key trends for innovators.

Courage and Leadership: More from Alper Utku

More from Alper Utku's Open Heart Leadership blog. He and I have a weekly dialog/ue where I challenge Alper's ideas and the ones that survive being hit with a hammer go through to form Alper's blog posts. Please feel free to comment on them yourself to help Alper sharpen his definition of a form of leadership fit for the 21st century. He's posting on Courage this week and next. Here's an excerpt from his second post:

I was talking with a friend, Stuart Turnbull, who is particularly interested in love in organizations, and we realized that the word ‘courage’ has its root in ‘heart’. ‘Cour’ = ‘coeur’ (’heart’ in French). That explains why Courage seems to sit at the core of Open Heart Leadership, as it is about acting from the heart.

In Turkish, we have the same connection as the Latin root: being courageous almost translates directly to being ‘heartful’. That brings us to the word ‘encouraging’, which also has ‘heart’ at its core, and is about nurturing courage in others to do the right thing - an essential part of leadership.

If we follow this ‘heart’ link, it is a vital topic in different philosophies. In Sufi-ism, the heart is the ‘house of the divine’ and you are promised a state of no fears, no worries if you connect completely with the heart.

Manfred Clynes, the psychologist (see the MindMap jpeg in the post below) has a basic construct of emotional rhythms he calls ‘Sentic States’. He says they are universal, shared across cultures by all humanity. The seven Sentic States have been linked to the seven chakras of the body by Peter Hawkins of the Bath Consultancy Group, who has used the model in training.

The seven Sentic States are:


Post continues here (August 26th)

Four ways to lead with urgency

More on John Kotter's new book


Over in Leadership Now's Leading Blog, Michael McKinney summarizes the four essential things you need to do to inject urgency into the organization, according to Professor John Kotter's new book, which we previewed below. Michael says:

1. Bring The Outside In
"Kotter offers four tactics to establish a sense of urgency in any environment:

First, bring the outside in. A “we know best” culture reduces urgency. “When people do not see external opportunities or hazards, complacency grows…. With an insufficient sense of urgency, people don’t tend to look hard enough or can’t seem to find the time to look hard enough. Or they look and do not believe their eyes, or do not wish to believe their eyes. Even if seen correctly, and in time, external change demands internal change.”

2. Model it every day
The second tactic is to behave with urgency every day. “Increasingly changing environments create a need for alertness and agility, which demands a sense of urgency that must be modeled by the boss all the time.” A few of the behaviors he details: purge and delegate, speak with passion, walk the talk.

3. Find opportunity in crisis
Third, find opportunity in crises. A problem with a damage control mind-set is often eliminates an opportunity. A properly leveraged crisis can be a valuable tool to break through complacency.

4. Deal with the 'NoNos'
And fourth, deal with the NoNos – those people that are “always ready with ten reasons why the current situation is fine, why the problems and challenges others see don’t exist, or why you need more data before acting.”

I think 4. is the same as 1. and can be summarized as 'Challenge denial'. What's the most powerful force in the Universe? I once heard James Taylor say (no, not THAT James Taylor. This one's the former CEO of Gateway and co-author, with Watts Wacker of the Five Hundred Year Delta).

Love? Hate? Gravity? Compound interest, as Einstein is supposed to have said? Nope. The most powerful force in the Universe is denial. When I say that in workshops I always expect someone at the back to stick their hand up and say "Oh no, it's not..." (Think about it).

Microsoft Cool?

If you never had the chance to see Mojo Nixon perform before he retired, then you missed a spectacle. Some claim Mojo was unsavory. Others derided him as the psychobilly messiah. More than a few left his shows laughing in disgust. But he was cool. And one thing he knew was [...]

Speaking at GOVIS 2009: User-centred government - More than meets the eye

As most of my readers will know, one of my passions is the potential for transformative government by leveraging the power of hyperconnectivity - social networks, engagement of constituents and citizens, connection of policy-makers to the people and connection or people to providers of government services. As such, I’m pleased to announce that I will be delivering [...]

Mzinga : Enterprise Social Media & Learning Solutions for Your Business

Mzinga : Enterprise Social Media & Learning Solutions for Your Business

The Lowest Hanging Fruit in Managerial Leadership - Effective Task Assignment

With all the curriculum out there - from supervisory training, to MBAs to leadership courses, you would think that effective task assignment techniques would be at the top of the list.  My experience is that it is not.  Managers I’ve met have usually had more Myers Briggs training than they have effective task assignment training. What does an effective task assignment [...]

Executive Presentations: It Takes Time to Be Great!

"All the good speakers were bad speakers first."

Its conference and seminar season!

After a relaxing summer, I'm back on the road delivering keynotes and running seminars for a wide variety of organizations, companies, and groups around the world.

David_meerman_scott_live_2

Many of the keynote speeches and longer group sessions that I run are for companies (such as my gig this week with the New York Islanders hockey team) or are as part of a particular industry event (for example I'm keynoting the Giant Screen Cinema Association international conference in early September and speaking at the Realtors Conference and Expo in November).

Please contact me if you're interested in discussing having me come to your company or to keynote your event.

There are also a number of upcoming events that I'll be participating in that many readers of this blog may also be attending. Perhaps one of these events fits into your schedule?

New Rules of Marketing seminar

Newrulesofmarketingseminar

I teach a full-day seminar based on my book The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Learn how to leverage the potential that web-based communication offers your business, in a one-day seminar that brings the book to life.

One participant said: All I can say is WOW! The book was excellent, but the seminar was amazing!

I cover, using tons of case examples, how to reach your buyers directly for a fraction of the cost of "old-school" advertising they'll likely ignore. We dive into creating content people want to consume and search engines reward with high rankings. You’ll walk away with an understanding of how tools like blogs, podcasts, ebooks and social networking can be used to enhance your online presence. Here are the dates and cities. You can learn more by visiting Pragamatic Marketing:
September 23 - Reston, VA (Washington DC area)
October 16 - Bedford, MA (Boston area)
October 30 - Minneapolis, MN
November 13 – Burlingame, CA (Silicon Valley / San Francisco area)
December 18 - Bedford, MA (Boston area)

New Marketing Summit

New_marketing_summit

The New Marketing Summit will be held October 14-15, 2008 at Gillette Stadium, near Boston, MA. I'm really excited about this summit because not only am I the keynote speaker, but I am one of the "Master Minds" behind the event together with social media marketing experts Paul Gillin (author of The New Influencers) and Chris Brogan (co-founder of PodCamp).

We've put together a stellar event. The New Marketing Summit explores how and when to use the latest new media tools to engage, listen, communicate and collaborate with your stakeholders. While the October event this year is in Boston, in 2009, we're holding New Marketing Summit events in Milan, Dallas, San Francisco, and Boston. When you register, Use my exclusive priority code for a $100 discount – DAVIDVIP

Inbound Marketing Summit

Ims_logo

My friends at HubSpot have lined up a terrific event on September 8 in Cambridge, MA called the Inbound Marketing Summit. Learn from experts and peers how to leverage inbound marketing to generate more leads and sales for your business. I am delivering the morning keynote and best-selling author and blogger Seth Godin will deliver the afternoon keynote address on the changing landscape of marketing and how to implement "new" marketing ideas that will transform your business. I'm a Seth fanboy, so that will be fun.

Brand Manage Camp

Mc08

The lineup of speakers at Brand Manage Camp on October 6-7, 2008 in Las Vegas is stellar. Everyone on the podium is a professional speaker and the organizers have done a terrific job of choosing a fantastic variety of topics.

I hope to meet you at one of these events.

PMI PMBOK - CMMI Process Map

provides links to a number of comparisons between the CMMI and other models and standards.

Full Time Resources for Implementing the CMMI


Other factors contributing to this estimate is how strong a ML 2 foundation is already in place and how much of what you currently have in place is at ML 3. Documenting the processes and procedures is the easy part, and it can be done by a small core group. The larger task is deploying the new processes and process assets and having people use them to change how they approach their jobs.

That was the week that was...Week ending August 22, 2008 - RecruitingBlogs.com

"A round-up from the recruiting industry’s group blogs, portals and individual archives..."

Washington, DC the rise of network intelligence

Washington, DC

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