Successful Blog

The Pendulums, The Level, The Relationships and Commerce

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The Pendulum

Pendulum

After years in educational publishing, I began to see a pattern. The philosophy of the day would swing from open classroom and individualized instruction to high-structure and rote learning. It would take about ten years, then the pendulum would swing back again.

The swing was regular and predictable in every subject area. People jump in, change everything, and convert as if to a new religion. Then around year 6 or 7, folks would see how the new philosophy wasn’t meeting every student’s needs for learning. A rumbling would happen and the pendulum would swing again.

The Level

Elegant level

You’d think eventually we’d find that spot where things get level. The kids who learned with practice would get that structure and the kids who needed expression would have lots of room to discover. Seems they might even teach each other. Instead we keep arguing about which is better.

It’s not just a problem in education.

Pendulums swing through human things — huge and inconsequential. We take on new ideas and overdo them. We make them bigger than what they’re replacing. Is that insecurity or evangelism?

The Relationships and Commerce

Every writer, every architect, every business leader knows that lasting ideas balance structure and expression in dynamic tension. A musical masterpiece is both technical excellence and artistic genius. Classic design is simple and elegant. Just recall your favorite building . . . that’s still standing. The structure holds it up and the expression makes it worth entering.

A powerful business values its tangible assets and its relationships. Earning revenue is a critical value — as is investing in the people and partners who make that revenue happen. Potent business plans balance history and certainty with vision and possibility. Relationships and commerce are better together.

Dynamic tension is always present in work of lasting value.

Balanced rock sculpture


It’s my birthday. I’m reflecting.

Do you see dynamic tension or folks caught in a pendulum swing?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Images: sxc.hu

Do Crayons Qualify as Social Media?

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A Drawing Can Launch a 1000 Words!

Crayons

A restaurant covers their tables with white butcher paper, and in a small juice glass on each table, they keep a bunch of well-used crayons. Most people might assume that those crayons are there to keep children behaving, but more than that actually happens.

It happens while folks are waiting for the their meal.

Even when no child is at the table, someone will reach for a crayon to draw on the paper tablecloth. The drawing might be an illustration of something the crayon-artist is saying, or it might be a simple doodle made while listening. Sometimes it’s more than one person using the crayons. Two or three people might get involved in making one drawing.

The people talk about the drawing.

A picture is worth 1000 words . . . crayons lead to conversations.

Ever had a kid draw you a picture, make you a card, or share crayons while you drew at the same table? Those experiences connect. Kids “get” the relationship side of crayons.

What do you think? Do crayons qualify as low-tech social media?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Change the World: Social Media and Time

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Renewable Resources

changetheworld8

This morning I was writing the sentence, “Time is our truly unrenewable resource,” when a Twhirl update popped up in the corner of my screen. I was hard not think about the time so many people spend on Twitter, doing business, being social, letting off steam.

I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if we took a mere 1% of that total time to simply add a comment to this question about using social media?

What Advice Would You Give to Women in Africa About using Web2.0 Tools to Advance their Work?

Speaking as an educational publisher, I know that those of us who have time to live social media could contribute intuitive detail that those who teach don’t always have time to collect.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Old People “Get” Social Media — Woodstock Was Social 3-D

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Grandma Has a Computer

The Living Web

Experience has value.

Every generation thinks they’ve invented the latest deal. I know we did. I know my grandma did too. My dad’s saloon reminds me of what folks do on Twitter everyday.

The value of getting older is that there isn’t much you haven’t seen in some form or other in the years gone by.

Old People Don’t Get Social Media

I caught this statement in a discussion elsewhere. It went something like, “I don’t think people over 40 get social media, whereas kids love it.” Having seen this sentiment mentioned before, I thought I’d express my feelings on the matter.

I’m 50 years old. I get the whole social media gig. It’s like Woodstock on the ‘Net, where people gather together for several minutes, days, weeks, months and years to hang out, talk, share, listen to music, run around naked and slide in the mud.

What social media doesn’t offer people of my generation is face to face communication. It doesn’t let us hold hands, sing or hug. Instead of raising our lighters as a token of respect and homage to those we admire, social media offers voting and “thumbs up” buttons. There’s no thrill there. There’s no rock and roll. Today’s version of social is “read this, read that”, vote on it, follow or unfollow, friend or unfriend, get answers or be completely and utterly ignored even though you know you’re there. . . .

They may never know you showed up. Not only that, to participate, you have to give out personal information and obtain a password. You need to configure settings. Its a lot of work just to hang out with people you don’t even know and annoying as heck when you simply wish to stay in touch with a few you do know. If someone spots you, everybody wants to be your friend.

Pot used to do that too.

— Kim Krause Berg

The entire blog post is a great read.

I know that relationships are where you find them. We’ve talked plenty about that. And I’m not about to give up my social tools, but I think, Kim, has a point about what’s missing from the mix.

They say it takes 10 years to make a VC.
Maybe it takes even longer to make a social media expert.
I wonder where Guy Kawasaki would weigh in on that question.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Check out Models and Masterminds too

Lasting Relationships and 15-Second Friends — Are You a Solo in a Social Media World?

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15 Days, 15 Seconds

relationships button

At dinner last Friday with Beth Kanter, the scholar of social media and tech for nonprofits, used the phrase “a solo in a social media world.” That phrase has stuck with me. I wonder whether social media is changing the relationships I have with my friends?

Beth’s statement came at about the same time that Maki sent me to a study that explains the nature of relationships.

Some friendships are short and fleeting, while others may last years. Although a wide variety of factors go into determining the strength of our relationships, the long-lasting ones seem to share a number of the same characteristics, according to a recent study of a cell phone network.

Lasting relationships have these things in common. The most important of these is reciprocity.

  • The more often we connect with friends in a 15-day period, the stronger our relationship will be.
  • Most strong ties between two people lasted for just one 15-day interval. Only 20% of relationships lasted longer than a year.
  • The strongest factor in lasting relationships is reciprocity — returning a phone call.

It’s a simple thing. When someone calls, writes, comments, links, or asks for help, do we respond or do we let it ride? Lasting relationships last because we are persistent in nurturing them.

By knowing the characteristics of persistence, the researchers could look at the features of the network for the first 15 days, and predict what the network would look like in the future.

Now we have access to a world of online and offline relationships, but we still only have so much time for reciprocity. Does social networking put us in danger of making vast communities of fast 15-day friends — folks we meet today and hardly know in a year? Is social networking causing us to neglect the reciprocity that made our relationships last?

Social networking offers us access to start and spark incredible new relationships. People connect, relate, and do business, who would otherwise never have met. Together we accomplish, build, create, innovate, solve, fix, and nurture. Some of us even fall in love and get married. Social media can have powerful, important, and lasting effects.

BUT, a 140 character touch within 15 seconds isn’t the same as a conversation within 15 days.

Friday, Rick Wolff said, “Someday, somebody’s REALLY going to plead for help on Twitter. . . . ”

Will that tweet be recognized?

Lasting Relationships in a Social Networking World — is that the new balance we have to find?

I don’t want to be a solo in a social media world.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Check out Models and Masterminds too

Five Tools Chris Brogan Uses for Listening and 8 Ways We Get the Most From Listening Tools

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Getting to the Heart of the Data

Can You Hear the Internet?

In a beautiful post tonight, Chris Brogan highlighted the value of listening. He pointed out how it’s too easy to

rush right into the “speaking” side of the toolbox without giving much thought to the “listening” part.

and he offered his favorite tools for a company who wants to be “listening to their audience, their customers, their partners, and their detractors.”

I’m so with him. You can find the five tools Chris uses most for listening here.

What to Listen for and How to Get the Most from Listening Tools

Just as when we write we have to know what we want to say. We have to know what we’re listening for . . . we’re listening for what people aren’t saying, but want to.

  1. Listen for quantity of response. Lots of folks saying the same thing is worth taking note of. Are they a crowd or a mob following each other? Are they a trend of individuals who have discovered something worth pointing out?

  2. Listen for the odd response that is way out of line. Someone on the edges of the responses could be offering am Einstein-like response.

  3. Listen for the spaces between the words. Ask some question about what’s not being said and listen again and again.

  4. Listen for the source of the speaker and the bias the speaker might have. Listen for who’s trying to get attention, who wants favor with the listeners.

  5. Listen for the things that you don’t want to hear. They’re the most important information you’ll gather on any listening trek.

  6. Listen to find the people who have more to offer than opinions, but innovative ideas and product plans. If you can, find a way to make a relationship with them.

  7. Listen to find the evangelists who love your company, who defend you when you’re attacked. Let them know they’re appreciated.

  8. Listen for ways that you might bring back what folks said to show the people who work hard on your products that people are paying attention to them..

Listening isn’t all data, all quantity and remarks. Listening is not a science, but an art that brings in human thought. Listening is the most important part of a conversation. Conversations are how communities begin.

Don’t let the tools draw lines around the way you hear.

I don’t. Brogan doesn’t either. Listen every way you know how.

What other ways do you use tools to listen to what people aren’t saying.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Check out Models and Masterminds too