Stories Are Sticky

Once upon a time when we were young our parents and teacher told us stories to pass on information. Long ago the oral history of nations was shared the same way.

Many of us blog for our businesses. Blogging allows us to share our expertise and our knowledge base. It can give us a podium on which to stand and deliver our message to the world. Don’t go there. Podiums make lecturers.

We might like to learn, but few folks like to be taught.

Great teachers share stories, and in that way, pass on what they’ve experienced. They follow the writers’ rule of “show don’t tell,” pointing out examples that bring home ideas and lessons that are meaningful in ways that principles alone could never illuminate.

I want to know how you know what you know so that I can be sure what you’re learned will work for me.

It’s my experience that telling stories lets people find their way into a situation or an idea without a wall of information between. Stories entertain without being intimidating or intrusive. We can see how to apply good story without feeling that we’re being judge for what we may have done wrong.

Stories are a sticky way of teaching and learning,

Share a story about how stories have helped you.

Liz Strauss
Find out about working with Liz.

I once saw a t-shirt that said, “Give me ambiguity or give me something else.” To this day I regret that I didn’t buy it. Ambiguity is the centerpiece of most knowledge work. Black and white, off and on, toggle switch decisions are easily programmed.

That leaves the decisions that require judgment to people, not machines. The inherent problem is that judgment calls get called differently based on the person who faces the decision and what that person brings to the table.

The outcome will be a result of the decision — without regard to the person who made it.

That fact is stressful. It means I am held to the same standard as folks who have much more knowledge and experience than I might ever have.

Leadership: Turning Ambiguity into Motivation

To be a leader, one can’t flinch at decisions. A leader has to look through the gray to evaluate a path. Effective leaders do that with confidence and success. Here are some ways they accomplish that.

• They understand the goals of the organization and test decisions against how outcomes might support those goals.
• They understand the priorities for their team and use them as decision-making tools.
• They frame gating questions that would make or break the decision, i.e. they look within a decision to find which parts are indeed black and white.
• They check history for data on similar decisions and their outcomes.
• They check their own experience — have they made this decision before? How did it turn out?
• They gather information from widely diverse sources in a limited amount of time, evaluate it, and use only what they need to make their decision.
• They continuously test the outcomes of the decisions they make so that any decision limited risk.

All of these actions, habits really, lower the stress of ambiguity in making decisions. When leaders use and model them, teams pick them up as standard procedures in problem solving. Flexibility in thinking and testing assumptions becomes the norm. The ambiguity becomes a positive motivator rather than a stress factor in the environment. Team members learn how to be leaders in the process.

Liz Strauss

Behind every Successful business is an Outstanding manager. –Perfect Virtual Manager.

Finding a Direction

In his book, Beyond Code: Learn to Distinguish Yourself in 9 Simple Steps! Raj Setty talks about how professionals often chase the “hot skills” of the moment rather than building a complete and well-rounded professional profile. In an interview at Successful-Blog Raj says

I am of the firm belief that most technology professionals are in a trap. They go after learning “hot” skills that have a short shelf-life just because everyone else around them are going after those “hot” skills. When these skills become obsolete or “out of fashion”, they go after a new set of “hot” skills. They repeat this cycle and think that they can continue to repeat this cycle (3 – 5 years) forever.

When these same people leave the traditional organization, they find that their wide and varied skill set offers many general business possibilities they might pursue on their own. Too often what happens is that they look for external factors to decide which skills are important on which to build a business.

These would-be entrepreneurs define what they do in a new way to each person they meet — in essence each time putting a new “fishing pole into the water,” hoping that one of the definitions will catch a client. That client will become the foundation from which the new business will grow. Unfortunately what most often happens is that the proverbial fisher ends up with 18 fishing poles in the water. He or she spends valuable time running up and down the proverbial riverbank, checking to see whether anything has happened. If the answer is negative, he or she might even add more.

As time passes, the fisher’s effectiveness at defining a skill set or attending to any one pole becomes more and more diluted. He or she gets more confused and less attention from people who might have been interested in someone who focused on a single goal.

The illusion here is that more fishing poles means more options are open. But in fact, that is not remotely true. The 18 fishing poles in the water mean it is 18 times harder for the fisher to respond to a real offer. The illusion of 18 fishing poles makes decisions seems 18 times closer, but in fact each decision is just as far as if it were one, and the fisher’s time is over invested in attending to things that haven’t caught any attention.

Do you have 18 fishing poles in the water? If you do, find someone who can help you determine which 3 or 4 are worth investing real time in. Pull the other poles out. Use the time that you would have spent tending them focusing your direction and defining your plan.

Liz Strauss

Behind every Successful small business there is an Outstanding Manager. — The Perfect Virtual Manager

I’m happy to help you form a message that is warm and clear. I’ve got a bit of experience at that. And showing folks how to communicate and how to build strategies to do it well are two of my most favorite things to do. I work with individuals, with schools, and with companies.

I give great presentations and love to do training.

I build my fees on a sliding scale based on what the work is worth. No worries. They’re honest and fair. Send me an email at lizsun2@gmail.com about what you need, or about what you’re thinking of, and we’ll talk it through from there.

Liz

Brian Clark, a wise man I know, recently wrote about The Two Most Important Words in Blogging.

Go on read his post. He’s a fine writer. You’ll need to know what he says to see where I take the conversation from here.

I agree with Brian and I raise him one higher. I think his two words could be the two most important words in human relationships, and I would add a third I, and in you and I.

Imagine No Conflict and No Conflict Resolution

In conflict Resolution, we learn to say I statements. I hear what you’re saying. I hear that you’re angry. I understand your disappointment.

Yet, I wonder what would happen if we had learned instead to use the word you more often before the conflict arose? You look a little down today. Are you feeling okay?

Because is so important, not only to move people to action, but also it stops them from filling in missing information. People have a habit of filling in an information vacuum with a negative. Why did he do that? If he doesn’t tell you, the because that you figure out is hardly ever good. Why? Good things don’t need us to prepare for them. So we focus on the negative in case we need our armor shined and ready to go.

You and I and because. three words, not two, that connect people in the same ways that blogs do — through meaningful conversation.

Liz Strauss

Shirley Buxton aptly named this post, Tech-savvy kids turn the tables and teach the teachers!

As for the teacher, Megan said, “We showed her how to upload the video from the camera, cut clips and add titles to the bottom of the slides. Next year, we’re going to do a Web page for her and link it to our movie.” –Shirley Buxton, Wednesday, April 26, 2006

How can we teach kids to communicate clearly and with elegance, if they’re busy teaching us how to work the technology they’re using to communicate with?

There’s only so much time in the school day . . . It would be much more productive and fun to play with the technology together, finding ways to make and contribute quality content to the world.

Liz Strauss

Goals and Templates

“Has it been that long since I wrote a bit about choosing a template?”

“Yes, Liz. It’s been that long.”

Well then, it’s time to stop thinking aloud and talk about the BIG IDEA.

The BIG IDEA

When people speak of writer’s block, what they are usually saying is that they don’t know what to write about. Without that goal, they can’t get started. Blogging is the same way.

Why blog?

A successful blog starts with a goal–a BIG IDEA. Your BIG IDEA is what your blog is all about in 25 words or less. Knowing your BIG IDEA, understanding the audience you seek, and being able to address both of those criteria with quality, transparency, and outright humanity is key to a blog that enjoys success, readership, and a community filled with relevant conversation. Your BIG IDEA for blogging will, and should, affect even the smallest details about your blog.

The BIG IDEA shows itself in your blog’s design, your writing style, your frequency of updating, even the words you use to name parts of your blog. Knowing your BIG IDEA makes every other decision about your blog easier. When a choice confronts you; just hold it up to you BIG IDEA to see if it belongs.
I have three blogs with three different BIG IDEAS.

• Letting me be . . . random wondering and philosophy
• Successful Blog
• Liz Strauss.com

If you click through to the others, you’ll see quickly that each has it’s own personality in a very visual way. Take a look down the content and the same will hold true. Even the writing voice on each is slightly different. No blog is less me than the others. Each is just me expressing a different BIG IDEA.

• Letting me be . . . random wondering and philosophy has the tagline Storytelling that brings back memories. It’s my personal writing blog. The BIG IDEA is getting away from the world to explore personal growth, creativity, and the memories that make up a life.
• Successful Blog has the header edited to read “Successful and Outstanding Bloggers” and a tagline that says a community of leaders. The BIG IDEA there is about building a community of sharing information about business, blogging, branding with other bloggers. That site has a directory of other blogers on the pages in the sidebar and another page for new bloggers.
• Liz Strauss.com has a tagline that says writing for you . . . that uniquely Liz elegance, heart, and creativity. I think of this as my “brainy” business site, a place where I talk about ideas in business and education one-on-one with readers. That’s why the design feels smaller and more “uniquely Liz.” I want this blog to feel business personal. I want readers here to know my brain, but know me too.

It’s okay to experiment a bit as you ready the template for your first blog. But life will be much easier if you start with help from someone who’s had experience. That’s not because blogging is difficult — it’s not. It’s because someone with experience can show you how to save time and help you set things up to suit your needs the first time, so that you don’t have to redo them later.

Know Your BIG IDEA and Set Goals

Now that you know your BIG IDEA. Take a minute to set a few goals–put together a timeline of when you’d like to accomplish certain parts of getting your blog up and running. An experienced blogger like I am can help you be realistic. You’ll be living with that blog for a while, and though you can change it, it’s nice to start with things in working order, feeling ready and confident.

Having small goals to reach helps keep your BIG IDEA at the forefront of your thinking. As you get a few goals accomplished, it will soon be time to write that first post. Actually it will be time to write that first week of posts. It’s serves your readers and your BIG IDEA better to have more content before you say that first “Hello.”

It’s exciting to open the doors for readers. I can help you be sure that you’re ready. If you need me, just send an email to me at lizsun2@gmail.com. I’m right here inside your computer.

Liz Strauss

On April 21, the LA Times suspended a Pulitzer Prize Winner’s blog because Michael Hiltzik, the blogger, was caught writing disparaging remarks in the comments sections of the blogs of his competitors. It’s to be noted that

• he was not immediately fired.
• an LA Times policy calls for all reporters and editors to identify themselves when dealing with the public.
• he had no comment on his actions.

I find Mr Hiltzik’s behavior a problem.

Wheren Lies the Problem?

One aspect of blogging that sets it apart is the ability of the blogger and readers to establish a valid and ongoing relationship as people. Relationship are built on transparency, authenticity, and trust. Mr. Hiltzik blew all three with his childish need to strike against those who didn’t agree with his point of view. He often called his competitors names, such as “idiots” from his own podium. He must have been looking for additional voices to echo his feelings.

Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine, a blog that keeps track of mainstream media interactions, responded to this situation with a clear definition of the problem that seems to be more usual a part of the media now that ever before,

The bottom line: Journalists who are afraid to speak as themselves in public. They thus separate themselves from the public they serve: scared of us or feeling superior to us, but not among us in any case. That is a mistake and an insult. . . .

But, still, here’s Hiltzik choosing to enter into a conversation with the public — the act of blogging is precisely that — but then pulling back to refuse to interact with honestly, at eye level. It’s an act of lying and of cowardice.

Obviously, one key would be not choose a liar and a coward. But lets look deeper.

There’s an inherent self-centeredness and immaturity about his actions as well.

What Lesson Is Here for Corporate Blogging?

The ideal corporate blogger would be passionate about the company and delighted to be blogging, curious about readers and happy to learn from them. This mature soul would not mind people with differing opinions. In fact, he or she would see that as the start of a great, moderated discussion. Any issues that could not be resolved would brought back to the office. All answers — positive and negative — would be reported back to readers.

Gee, it sounds very much like the same qualities and responsibilities an enterprise would look for in a team leader. Doesn’t it?

Maybe that’s because the goal is to get readers on the same team.

Liz Strauss

I want to share this rewritten version of the first post in the Future Skills I’m doing over at Successful-Blog. This is the basis for 1-5 presentations on the 10 Critical Skills Needed for a Place in the Future.

The purpose of the presentation set is to help attendees stretch their thinking abilities to include more creativity, flexibility, originality, fluency, and all ten of the skills I have identified as critical to success in the 21st century.

The content for these presentations can be crafted to work with groups of 10-200 and for organizations, educators, or their students. Feel free to E-mail me at lizsun2@gmail.com. if you have any questions about how the Critical Skills Presentations might be tailored to work for your group.

Thinking in the 21st Century

Thinking cannot be separated from who we are. The 21st century is the age of intellectual property. What we think and how well we express those thoughts will determine our place in society–where we fit and how well we live. Thoughts, ideas, processes, intangibles–all have value in a world of constant change. In the 21st century, knowledge is an adjective, a noun, and an asset–in the form of intellectual property–on corporate balance sheets.

In the largest sense, American society is breaking into two classes:

The first class are people who know how to think. These people realize that most problems are open to examination and creative solution. If a problem appears in the lives of these people, their intellectual training will quickly lead them to a solution or an alternative statement of the problem. These people are the source of the most important product in today’s economy – ideas.

The second class, the vast majority of Americans, are people who cannot think for themselves. I call these people “idea consumers” – metaphorically speaking, they wander around in a gigantic open-air mall of facts and ideas. The content of their experience is provided by television, the Internet and other shallow data pools. These people believe collecting images and facts makes them educated and competent, and all their experiences reinforce this belief. The central, organizing principle of this class is that ideas come from somewhere else, from magical persons, geniuses, “them.”

. . . My purpose in this article is to undermine that belief.

–Paul Lutus, Creative Problem Solving

It’s Time to Think with Creativity

When I was in school, the term gifted did not exist. It was weird and unpopular to be different. We learned inside the box. No one even considered the option of to thinking outside of the box. Questions that I asked that fell outside of the box earned me my own pull-out program, because they disrupted the thoughts and routine of the class. I didn’t mind. I found that to be a relief from stress and boredom.

I learned many things being a right-brained, outside-of-the-box thinker, in a left-brained, inside-of-the-box school. I was lucky in that way that I was able to grow both skill sets–the right-brain, visual mathematical pattern skills that were my natural inheritance; and the left-brain, sequential, verbal, linguistic that they taught in school. I learned many things about people in the way a left-handed child learns to use right-handed scissors. I learned to figure out how everyone thinks. I learned to observe so that I could understand them. Knowing how other people think was a survival skill for me. For them, learning how I think was a gesture of friendship.

That was then.

In school it’s weird not to think like everyone else.
In society, outside-of-the-box thinking is a prized commodity. Innovative thinking is essential to any change-based leadership brand.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

My experience of school, both as a student and sadly as a teacher was not, in the most primary sense, geared toward developing new ideas. It was centered around teaching and learning what had already been done, without taking that next step to challenge the past with how it might have been done differently or better.

Thinking Outside of the Box Is Critical

The world economy has changed to one of service and ideas. Conversation is digital, and content is king. The ability to work with ideas has become crucial to having a place in society. Thinking outside of the box is no longer a weird personality trait, but it has become something to be admired and valued. It’s a key trait necessary to modern-day strategic planning and process modeling.

Intellectual property–content–is an asset that not only gets produced, but reproduced, reconfigured, and repurposed for variety of media. Those who produce intellectual property are builders of wealth. An original idea that solves a problem or presents an opportunity is worth more now than it ever has been. Those who develop and mold original ideas are the new “killer app.” Thinking has become the ultimate in cool.

10 Skills Critical to Your Future

These are ten skills critical to any repertoire. They have indelible impact as part of a personal brand, an enterprise vision, a skill set. They compound in value each minute in the marketplace. Though it can be done, these 10 skills are difficult to cultivate inside the proverbial box. Yet they are critical to your future, if you want to be an idea creator and not an idea consumer. These are

The 10 Most Critical Skills for the 21st Century

1.Deep independent thinking and problem-solving–The ability to understand a problem or opportunity from the inside out, vertically, laterally, at the detail level, and the aerial view.

2. Mental flexibility–The ability to tinker with ideas and viewpoints to stretch them, bend them, reconstruct them into solutions that fit and work perfectly in specific situations.

3. Fluency with ideas–The ability to describe many versions of one answer and many solutions to one problem set and to explain the impact or outcome of each both orally and in writing in ways that others can understand.

4. Proficency with processes and process models–The ability to discuss a problem in obsessive detail and to define a process, linear or nonlinear, that will solve the problem effectively within a given group culture.

5. Originality of contributions–The ability to offer a value-added difference that would not be there were another person in the same role.

6. A habit of finding hidden assumptions and niches–The ability to see the parts of what is being considered, including the stated and unstated needs, desires, and wishes of all parties involved.

7. A bias toward opportunity and action–The ability to estimate and verbalize the loss to be taken by standing still and missed opportunities that occur by choosing one avenue over another.

8. Uses all available tools, including the five senses and intuitive perceptions, in data collection–The ability to weigh and value empirical data, sensory data, and one’s own and others’ perceptions appropriately.

9. Energy, enthusiasm, and positivity about decision making–The ability to bring the appropriate mindset to the decision-making process in order to lead oneself or a team to a positive decision-making experience.

10. Self-sustaining productivity–The ability to use the confidence gained from the first 9 skills to establish relationships with people at all levels–from the warehouse to the boardroom–knowing that ideas are not the pride and privy of only a gifted few.

Innovative, imaginative, inventive, mind-expanding, playful-wondering, what-if, how-come, dramatic-difference, find-the-wow, visionary, killer-app, I-want-one, no-more-stupid-stuff, nothing-in-moderation, bet-the-farm, incredibly-sexy, please-please-can-I, that’s-so-cool, couldn’t-knock-it-off-if-they-tried-to, able-to-see-better-than-the-best, no-more-move-here-today-move-it-back-tomorrow, stupid kind of thinking happens outside of the box.

The skills that you develop from outside of the box thinking stay with you for a lifetime and are transferrable from one job to another. You don’t need them to write every shopping list, but they are there whenever there is a problem to solve or an opportunity to take advantage of.

It doesn’t take a genius to become a fluent, flexible, original, and creative source of ideas. It takes a person who can develop habits of thinking in new ways. What actually happens is that you find out how you really think, rather than how you were taught to.

You become uniquely you–the only one–priceless.

Who wouldn’t want to work with a person or an enterprise like that?

Liz Strauss

See also: Critical Skills 1: Strategic Deep Thinking

Want a personal hour of Liz’s time? See the About Liz page.

Robert Scoble works for Microsoft. He doesn’t have a big title. His office isn’t a suite. In fact, there’s not a window. He’s called a “Software Evangelist,” and his job is to work with outside engineers.

I guess the only unusual thing about Robert Scoble is that he has a blog, Scobleizer, and that blog is 25th of the 33,000,000 blogs indexed by Technorati, the seach and blog measurement firm. What Scoble has done for Microsoft is more than any ad campaign, website, or PR work has been able to achieve previously. He has given Microsoft humanity–a face that folks aren’t mad at.

On his blog, Scoble talks about his life, comments on tech gadgets and products throughout the tech world, including, but not exclusive to, his own company. He talks about his wife and about other blogs he reads. He also talks about little things that happen at Microsoft.

His value as a customer ambassador shows when problems occur. At times like that, he’s a human face, a regular guy that people already know. For example, in 2005 when Boing, Boing the number 1 blog began criticizing Microsoft for a security bug in it’s MSN Spaces service, Scoble just agreed. He took the message back to Microsoft and kept a running conversation going on his blog about it.

‘MSN Spaces isn’t the blogging service for me,” he wrote. Nobody at Microsoft asked Scoble to comment; he just did it on his own, adding that he would make sure that the team working on Spaces was aware of the complaints. And he kept revisiting the issue on his blog. As the anti-Microsoft crowd cried censorship, the nearly 4,000 blogs linking to Scoble were able to see his running commentary on how Microsoft was reacting. “I get comments on my blog saying, ‘I didn’t like Microsoft before, but at least they’re listening to us,’” says Scoble. “The blog is the best relationship generator you’ve ever seen.” His famous boss agrees. “It’s all about openness,” says chairman Bill Gates of Microsoft’s public blogs like Scobleizer. “People see them as a reflection of an open, communicative culture that isn’t afraid to be self-critical.”–David KirkPatrick, Why There’s No Escaping the Blog, Fortune Magazine

Scoble was authentic–the real deal. He gave Microsoft humanity and gave customers honest communication. He’s approachable. He’s credible, He’s there to complain to for thousands of fans and customers each day. Scoble let his audience know that Microsoft was listening. In the hands of another, the result might not have been the same.

Choose carefully who writes your blog. Make certain that the person understands his or her role as ambassador and conduit is as important as that of writer, community builder, and conversationalist.

This person should be able to live the brand, be your company’s brand in the eyes of your customers. That’s what your customers will see and believe.

The person you’re looking for has an energetic and curious passion for finding out about your products down to the smallest detail, a knowledge of the industry, a respect for customers and for competitors, and a writing voice that shines through with warmth and personality.

Hey that sounds just like me.

Liz Strauss