Why Tweetting?

I always want to know more about coaching and productivity and while I was listening to a useful teleclass on Productivity Process for Coaches and Consultants by George Kao and reading the comments on his Facebook page, I came across a comment about Twitter and the confusion about its relevance. So this is what I share on my current understanding of the tool:

Twitter is a powerful tool in a number of ways. For instance, it can be used as a micro-blogging media, allowing you to write down your insights related to topics you deeply care about or topics where you are an expert, an enthusiast or a fan.

Incidentally, you can also find through Twitter people and organizations who dig what you dig, loving what you love. All of a sudden, you can connect, listen and share insights with people whom you share a common interest with. It is one way to use it, so you can connect and discover people who inspire you in any field imaginable. It is also a "listening device" as obviously it can be a part of a marketing strategy.

Obviously, because Twitter is part of what we call "social media" (I prefer to say media "closer" to people) that means that there is less room for phoniness and inauthentic communication. When you are not really authentic, your message is instantly less compelling and closer to spam.

I could go on... suffice to say, Twitter and the other micro-blogging devices emerging will continue to evolve and impact on the way we communicate, influence and socially agree on what matter to us.

Creativity, Productivity and feeling Stuck

I wrote this in response to Penelope Trunk's great post on creativity and productivity.
The way you channel strength and vulnerability in your post is remarkable! It makes your writing fresh and authentic.
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Beyond goals, I find the real inquiry that creates more focus (and engagement) lies in discovering what values are truly important to us. Sometimes, just reviewing those values during the week makes a huge difference to realign ourselves and find what is truly meaningful in our goals.

So I would say that it is sometime hard to stick to the "A- to do list" when our goals are not really an expression of values we have determined or discovered for ourselves. I would even argue that we must let space for the sublime to feed more and more the mundane. So that when you write your to do list, answer to a post, coach, wash the dishes (the mundane), you feel the connection to something sublime that only you could have come up with.

It's Now Your Value

This great article from the New York Times inspired me to learn more about the concepts of content and value as applied to the entertainment world.

Value and content were once the same thing. After all, if television said it was good for us, surely it was, right? But as most of us realize, things have changed - and so too have the concepts of value and content.

In the past, the very people who determined content were often the same people establishing what our values would be. They did this by telling us that their content was valuable. We had no choice. They even set the time we needed to watch or pay attention. This has changed profoundly.
Executives worry constantly about content for their new media platforms, and I realize how the executive mindset has not changed. The progressively emerging reality shows that  people will be willing to pay for value as opposed to prioritizing content. Content is simply not necessarily valuable anymore! This is nothing new! But our current media context reveals the lies we have to buy into.

 

Were I one of those executives, I would stop worrying so much about content and I go back to the fundamentals of figuring out what people really care about today. With this new mindset, eventually, the conversation would lead to art, to stories, to meaning, to offering your public something that truly matters for 3 reasons: it touches them, it can be shared, it can be recommended.

Love and war

Every time you  are willing to let go of being right: love ends war (thanks Anant). Try it at work, try it in with your relationships, try it everywhere.

Your Service or Product Does not Matter

I answered a series of questions posed by Sally Hogshead's (trust me, she is beautiful!) clever survey about the 7 triggers that make humans and their messaging fascinating. Her argument is that all of us have certain traits in us (some active, some dormant) and that we can explore ways to make them more explicit.  My primary trigger is vice, the secondary is lust and the dormant trait is trust.

Without having read the book or spent money buying it, I have already received great value from the author,  who put this book together. To me, what's becoming clearer each day is that there is an  open field to offer products and services that are not about the offerings, but about the value of what is received. For example, what if publishers where more concerned about the emotional and human value, the collateral benefit to customers buying their books, rather than the selling of the book.

Perhaps, when you are selling books, you are not so much in the business of printing, distributing, or arguing over the evil of e-books. You are in the business of moving people, to help them grow, to inspire them. What if a publisher was doing everything he could to understand the impact of his books on people?

I bet that no matter what business your are in, you could put a greater emphasis on those  who are being touched by your services and products. Perhaps, changing your entire mindset to see beyond the current end result, so you can track how in the long run, people are actually transformed positively by what you offer.

Free Idea for People in The e-book Business!

One of the great things about the recent evolution of the web is the extended ability we
have to share what matters to us and what resonates with us. In a way, the way
validates our human needs to inspire and inspire other.

I recently bought Mindsight from Dan Siegel on the Amazon kindle application for the
iphone. Surprisingly, the reading experience on the iphone is wonderful and one of the
simple features I enjoy the most is the ability to highlight and take notes in the text.
Not only does it allow me to browse through the text to see where I indicated interesting passage, but it also allow me to look at all the highlights and notes I took while I was reading, at the
same place.

When I read a great book, something I deeply enjoy is to talk about what I am reading
and why not share my experience with other. Why not offering, as a way to spread the
word around a book, the capacity to share passages of the book (say 5 passages per
book) through different social network. The quote could come with a connection to the
book’s blog, Facebook page, to the author’s twitter account, to Amazon, Borders, etc.
Graphically, there is a lot of potential to make the spread a real call to action that would
entice new sales.

Through such a marketing strategy, there is a real potential to help books do what they
do best, which is to go viral and touch the people around us. When we read a great
book, we want to share it with others. Publishers have a chance to make it easier, while
abandoning their old ways about intellectual property.

The World Wants to Know What Your Super Power is?

I was talking with two great colleagues of mine over lunch when we started talking about inner radiance and personal strength. To put it simply, we started talking about super powers. As straightforward as it is, many people you will meet over your next business/personal meetings will have no idea what their super power(s) is/are.

For instance, a few weeks  ago, I was meeting with a senior vice-president about an upcoming project in New York. When asked about the role I could see myself playing, I became unclear, losing the  focus of my message. Luckily, I will have another chance at making clear what power I could bring to the project, but we don't get to have a second chance everyday.

As much as you can, do the work of listening to discover what your strengths are. Don't go for the obvious strengths, remember how every superhero has distinctive traits that make him indispensable  and remarkable. With every team I worked with, I used a number of tools to get to know them better and almost always, I used Strength Finder as a tool to build self-awareness and collective emotional intelligence that leads to the acceptance that everybody in the team brings some type of super power. 

When it is clear to you know what your strengths and special gifts are, spend time condensing them into a few words. My superpower for instance is to connect people to what's truly great in them. I am also great at linking ideas, making them grow and see the potential behind them. In short, I am a great connector, of people and of ideas.

You will have numerous unplanned opportunities to share with other what your superpowers are. Do the precious work of clarifying what these special strengths are to you, the world needs your super powers, starting with you!