Successful Blog

The Dangers of Old Think and the Dangers of Thinking New

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The stories on the top of Google Blog Search Business aren’t optimistic. They haven’t been for a while. Yet the predictions for social media, mobile and the growth of online advertising are huge. New jobs are being invented, described and defined, and invested in. New people are learning new skills to do them.

What happens to businesses that keep thinking “old think” when huge new opportunities are happening?

Saturday on Twitter, Dan Pancost offered these thoughts in response to my question.

@jazzlover: Those not willing to change with the times will still be hurting…. They’ll experience a lot of missed opportunities. Their businesses will probably begin a decline.

Adapting and changing to this new terrain is vital, thrilling, but not as simple as it seems.

Are You Trying to Fit Old Think into a Culture That’s New?

Past successes often inspire us to new things. It’s been said that “success breeds success.” But that isn’t always so. When we take on a new endeavor, we have to take on the new behaviors that will propel it up and forward. Yet, who hasn’t tried to use skills that made success in the past to build a future?

The old skills and perspectives don’t work when the culture and climate are new.

“Old think” businesses simply won’t prosper as much as the more flexible business thinkers and doers. Dan added later in the conversation. It would seem that most folks who read here would understand what Dan meant. I totally agree with what he said. We need to get out from under the burden of old thinking, to throw off old habits and thoughts to take on new ones.

But new thinking is dangerous too. I see signs of new thinking gone wrong every day. Here’s a few ways that thinking new can derail us just as horrendously.

  • It’s a good idea because it’s new. We act as if our fluency with the new culture ourshines our lack of experience. It’s still a new culture. We do foolish things and have unfortunate ideas.
  • Bye bathwater. Bye baby too! We turn our backs on what could still serve us well. Previous relationships and processes that have value get set aside. We take our new ideas out for a spin in our new environment, leaving safety nets and guideposts in a past life.
  • Everyone’s doing it! Our values become those of the new culture without thought. We do what everyone is doing. We accept everyone’s rules.

Whatever the economy, whether you’re solo or CEO of a huge enterprise, the challenge is continuous. How do we keep the best of what we know and throw off what is no longer true?

Old think or new think nothing beats thinking things through.

Depending on where you sit in the social business world, I’m thinking you see people in danger of old think or in danger of new think. What advice do you have to offer the thinking business folks you know?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Questions: Are Social Tools Making Introverts into Extroverts?

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Energy Inside or Out

Today in a telephone conversation with @PJMcGuire, we talked about how people see us and who we are. She mentioned that she had called herself a “people person,” and someone she works with said, “No, you’re more than that, you’re a traditional extrovert. You get your energy from other people.”

I’ve always found the differences between introverts and extroverts to be fascinating — mostly because each group seems to think that the other is flawed. Even those of us who don’t know or don’t understand the basic difference between the two groups seem to think that there is a right way to respond. Meaning another way must be wrong.

Introverts renew their energy by going inside themselves. When they’re bearing stress, they seek to be alone to find comfort and solve problems. Other people’s energy drains their reserve. Introverts are less likely to seek stimulation from others because their own thoughts and imagination are stimulating enough.

Extroverts refuel by being with other people. When the house falls in, they want to talk it out. Hearing themselves talk is how they solve problems. When they’re with other people they get recharged. Extraverts (also spelled extroverts) tend to be gregarious, assertive, and interested in seeking out excitement.

Are Introverts Becoming Extroverts on the Social Web?

Dr. Mike Wesch said, “The media mediates relationships.” As we lose context, we reach out for community. Research shows that younger generations are more extroverted.

It’s not fully understood why some people are introverts and others extroverts. The ratio is changing over time. CPP (formerly Consulting Psychologists Press) is the publisher of the Myers-Briggs assessment and has testing data going back 50 years. It plans to release research showing younger generations are becoming increasingly extroverted. Those born before 1964, including baby boomers, are split about 50-50 between introversion and extroversion, but 59% of Generation X (born 1965-81) are extroverted, as are 62% of Millennials (born after 1981). —Not all successful CEOs are extroverts

I interviewed bloggers daily for over a year. It became clear within a short time that the bloggers I spoke with overwhelmingly described themselves as independent introverts. That seemed to make sense then. Blogging is a writing task that requires reflection. Now I wonder whether that was then and the folks who chose to participate.

Now I see the changes in myself and some of those interviewees as I look across the web. It took me a long time to get to Twitter, but now … beware following me. I tweet a lot when I’m there.

Many of us have been slow to adopt Twitter then become very chatty as we get comfortable there.

People see me as an extrovert, but I’m not. I’ve heard the same from blogger friends. I understand why people think so. I look around and wonder … are the tools making us extroverts or just making us seem so? Are we introverts or have we become something different in this context?

Are introverts becoming extroverts on the social web?

Can we really think of it as being extroverted if we’re not actually WITH other people?

Is it possible for an introvert to become an extrovert — changing energy source from inside to out?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Panning for Gold: How Do You Find Relevant and Valuable Information?

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Are Off Course 98% of the Time?

relationships button

Did you know that an airplane flying from New York to LA is off course 98% of the time?

Just as a driver is always moving the steering wheel to keep the car pointed in the right direction, the pilot is constantly adjusting based on the information he’s taking in — from the instruments, from the crew, from air traffic control, from every source he recognizes as relevant and valuable.

Wise individuals and great companies do the same thing. We get to our goals by constantly adjusting. Yet, for some reason, we sometimes fool ourselves into thinking that we or the organizations we work with have control over the forces outside and around us. It’s just not so.

We can manage what’s within our power to manage. But more importantly, we can adjust, innovate, and grow if we if we find the relevant and valuable information about the rest.

How Do You Find Relevant and Valuable Information?

Individuals and organizations that are growing are curious and information hungry. We are personally involved in work and business, but we don’t take information personally. We work through an information gathering process again and again in a spiraling, overlapping, scaffolded fashion. We use the latest listening tools, but even more we use our ears, eyes, hearts, and minds to decipher what is relevant and valuable to their goals.

  • Listen actively. It’s so powerful to set aside filters that would have us hear only what supports our current world view. Looking for other perspectives, other voices, different, radical, outrageous ideas offers a diverse pool from which to choose and challenges our assumptions.
  • Test what you hear. We ask folks who are talking about what they’re saying to confirm that the message we received is clear. Then we ask other folks if that message makes sense in their lives too.
  • Adjust and adapt to the new information. We steer. Steering isn’t all controlling. It’s altering our world view to include what we have just learned.
  • Share. We make sure that the right folks know. We tell other people. Organizations tell customers, employees, shareholders, prospects, and key stakeholders.

Sounds a little like panning for gold — with each pan we use a finer sifter. With each pan we get closer to what we want to know.

While you’re listening, consider and reconsider what you’re listen for.
How do you find relevant and valuable information?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Social Media Marketing: It's Not About the Champagne!

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It’s Not About Finding Customers Either

When new clients ask questions about marketing with social media, it’s getting easier to determine who’s going to be successful. It’s not their goals that identify them as understanding the social business culture. It’s the way they view their product and the people who use it.

The questions they ask quickly reveal who understands the new social climate, who realizes that it’s not about finding customers for their products, but about using their products to connect people to other people. For folks still steeped in broadcast marketing, the conversation quickly turns to product features, uses, and lead generation.

Old thinking was hard enough.

The new thinking is even harder to execute. It brings people much further into the picture. Now we have to show how our products bring people together. Like great design, great products and great marketing call attention to and serve their audience.

It’s not about the champagne or the size of the bubbles … it’s about the celebration!

Have you seen any great examples of marketing that connected people with people?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Listening & Watching – Lessons Learned

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I took two days off Twitter recently and listened. By listening I mean watched. I’d been noticing the changes: the shifting, the influx and the exodus. I’m not talking about how the interface is working; I’m talking about the how the users are changing through the use of the tool. I’m a sociologist at heart. I like to watch group behavior; I like to think about what makes people tick. Brian Solis described social media as “… a fusion between technology and sociology…” Naturally, I’m intrigued.

I saw really interesting happenings. There will always be leaders and there will always be followers – no Twitter pun intended. I saw people I have met in person taking on leadership roles on twitter that they never would dream of doing off line. I saw people changing their behavior from when they began on Twitter to emulate some who they must perceive as successful. I saw people building relationships based on conversation and many offerings of help.

At first, I admit, I did notice the more negative aspects of what is happening out there like the huge collecting of followers based purely on numbers without any engagement. I also noticed that some people needed instruction on how to be genuine. No, not just newspapers and corporations but actual individuals.

Through a conversation I was having with someone I greatly admire (and whom I met through Twitter) I began to describe how I found this particularly sad. He replied the “genuinely-challenged” haven’t learned that their vulnerability can be a rich source for power to do good for others.” I thought about that statement for a full day.

I see a lot of good things happening through social media. I’m not just talking about Twitter – that’s a tool and there are many tools. I see people coming together, exchanging ideas, learning and growing. I see companies communicating with people who buy their products in a meaningful way. I see publishers, PR people recognizing the need for change and working through that. In tough times I see people reaching out to each other building a community that offline, maybe crumbling around them.
It was really good to step back for a day or two. I highly recommend it. It’s also really good to be back.
Have you taken a social media break? Was it helpful? What did you learn?

from: Kathryn Jennex aka @northernchick

How Do You Invite a Shy Company to Taste Social Media?

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Sometimes a Taste Is All We Need

Last night David Panscot wrote a compelling comment on my blog. His question was how do we get people trained to broadcast a message to become part of a culture of trust relationships?

He already knows what we all do — it’s hard to change thinking like that. It requires a cultural shift. It takes empowerment to face the risk of doing something that goes against what “we’ve always done.”

I always think of how Baskin Robbins gets us to try something new. They give us a taste before we buy.

Here are five ways to invite a shy company to take a taste of social media.

  1. Invite a member of the organization to be an advisor on social media project. Ask him or her to sit in on calls as you decide the direction of your plans.
  2. Invite the organization to become a sponsor by offering to lend a hand in the form of design work on your marketing effort.
  3. Invite two or three traditional organizations to participate in a survey that you might send to your customers about how they might like to interact with your product or your web pressence. Then send them the results of the actual survey once it has been completed.
  4. Invite an organization to try a limited size version of a social media class that you want to pilot.
  5. Invite the CMO of an organization to be your guest at a local tweetup. As you introduce him or her, ask folks to tell share the single most important value of Twitter.

That’s a start. Not everyone of these might work for every organization or environment. The point is to give folks a relevant taste that fits easily into their lives — no risk with noticeable benefit.

How do you invite a shy company to taste social media?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!