The Effort Effect

I found this link via Guy Kawasaki's exceptionally good blog. The article is right up Ollie's street but should be of particular interest to anyone who manages people or has kids. And if you don't fall into either category it's just pretty darn interesting and well worth being information that you store in your brain to pull out and wow (/bore) people with at parties (or is it just me that does that?)

The article is about Carol Dweck and you can see it here. Carol is a psychologist with an exceptional pedigree so what she says goes pretty much. My favourite bit:

Dweck’s students from over the years describe her as a generous, nurturing mentor. She’d surely attribute these traits not to an innate gift, but to a highly developed mind-set. “Just being aware of the growth mind-set, and studying it and writing about it, I feel compelled to live it and to benefit from it,” says Dweck, who took up piano as an adult and learned to speak Italian in her 50s. “These are things that adults are not supposed to be good at learning.”

Maybe I should pick up that guitar that I put down quite a few years ago now...

Where would you like to work?

Omni are looking at a potential office move soon. The place we're in now is great but just not big enough for the rapid expansion that's happening. If we leave it unchecked it'll be 3 people to each desk, sitting on each others knees and chaos in the kitchen.

When we move we'll have a blank space that will need decorating and furnishing. We could do a lot worse than follow some of the ideas suggested by the always innovative Chief Happiness Officer. (I want a few Sumo Omni bean bags at least! The name fits and everything!)

Really disappointing

There is a story floating round on the blogosphere at the minute that is really quite upsetting. It's essentially a story about bullying and how some people feel the need to make other people miserable. It's a pretty sad indictment of human behaviour in all honesty and it's not my place to get into it in too big a way, not knowing the main protagonists involved. Worth noting I thought though, as the person this has affected most is one of my favourite bloggers and she now may be retiring from the whole scene.

The link to the story is below. You'll also find plenty of comment if you pay Scoble, Hugh or Seth a visit. Important though - the following link leads to what is a quite disturbing post, with very strong language. If you're not comfortable with that please don't click the link.

Here is the link to the possibly the last post Kathy Sierra will ever write (although fingers crossed this is a break rather than a retirement).

Q&A with JP

I've been interviewed for a post that Louise (from UK Recruiter) has just put up on her blog. You can read the interview here.

Almost like being famous this, maybe they'll call me up about the next series of Celebrity Big Brother...

Utterly remarkable recruitment strategy

I like to think that some of the strategies we put in place to find people for our clients are pretty innovative. We're focussed on finding the very best people anyway we can. Yet this blows it out of the water really...

Via Seth, this link describes in detail a recruitment strategy that is truly remarkable. You may think that this doesn't apply to you I suppose because of the effort involved/cost/market sector you work in/type of person you hire etc. For me though it's not about copying what Red5 do, it's about the state of mind involved. It's about your attitude to recruitment. It's about the focus on people. It's about being truly committed to hiring the best and proving your committment. It's about doing things that people will remark on over and over.

Read the post, click the links, absorb the info and then hope you can do something as good as this. Think you can? Ideas on a postcard please!

Do you blog?

Any fellow bloggers out there? Then this link from Kathy Sierra is an absolute must-read. It's from a presentation she gave (man I'd love to have gone to that talk) based around Hugh MacLeod's Global Microbrand idea, which is a theory I subscribe to wholeheartedly.

To my mind it's no coincidence that the likes of Jason Calacanis, Robert Scoble, Seth Godin, Tara Hunt et al follow all of the above without even thinking. The debate about A-listers, access to readers etc keeps popping up in one form or another. Yet when all is said and done the guys 'at the top' all write well, have interesting content and respect their readership. Not to say others don't (narrowly avoided opening that can of worms there!) but it seems to me like a very good place to start for a newbie like me.

Who likes George Clooney?

First off apologies for the lack of posts recently, I've been in and out of the office so much recently. I really need to get into this whole mobile blogging thing!

Now apologies for the shameless 'exciting title - tenuously related post' situation here! This post from Seth is a good one though. What do you choose to do? Do you make good choices? My favourite quote:

Not choosing is still making a choice.

How happy are you at work?

Psychologists such as Amy Wrzesniewski believe there are three ways to view your work:

As a job-you work for your pay check, often watching the clock while day dreaming about the weekend.
As a career-you have set goals and wish for promotion and recognition.
As a calling- something you would continue to do even if your numbers came up on the Lottery. You find your work fulfilling and satisfying resulting in a positive and happy approach to your work.

However, it is now thought that it is not just your ‘job’ which effects your happiness at work but the way you actually view your job, to quote Marcus Aurelius ‘life itself is but what you deem it’.

There is actually a branch of Psychology now dedicated to the study of happiness and nowhere does it mention having lots of money, being stick thin, having a huge house, a beautiful partner or owning a flash car. The 6 areas which are thought to affect our happiness are:

Wisdom: love of learning, intelligence
Courage: perseverance and integrity
Humanity: kindness and love
Justice: Citizenship and fairness.
Temperance: self-control and prudence
Transcendence: gratitude, forgiveness and hope.

There are some very good websites dedicated to helping people become happier (www.authentichappiness.org) and (www.happinesshypothesis.com). So if you’re unhappy at work, it might be useful to think about changing the way you perceive your job rather than simply changing your job???

Feed me Omniblog!

Just a quick post to say that if you're not already using a syndicated feed to view the blog (or in case you're not into the whole feed, newsreader, RSS thing) you can now see all new posts on this site. It's run by Louise at UK:Recruiter (whose blog is well worth a read) and provides a nice portal for related stories if recruitment blogging is what you're into.

What hours do you work?

Quick link for you regarding 'Extreme Jobs'. Just goes to show that the supposed work/life balance revolution is still in it's infancy at best. If your working week sounds anything like the one described in this article though do something about it, quickly. It's not good for you and despite any claims to the contrary from your boss, it's not good for your company. How does it really help if you're great for the first few months in a job then a shell of yourself for the next year?

So act now, before you end up like Barbara:

Before Barbara Agoglia left her job as a director in American Express' small business unit, she was on the verge of burnout. Aside from logging upward of 50 hours per week, she had a 90-minute commute to and from northern Westchester and had to be reachable to clients nearly 24-7.
The breaking point came when her son started kindergarten and she didn't have time to wait with him at the bus stop. "The hamster-on-the-wheel analogy is the best way to describe how I felt," she says. For Agoglia, quitting felt like her only option.

Organisational Democracy top performers

As a follow up to my recent post about Ricardo Semler and Organisational Democracy I can point you to the following list; the most democratic workplaces in 2007. It's a bit of a mixed bag of companies with some names on there you may be familiar with (but I'd bet most not). I'd absolutely love Omni to get on the list and looking at the criteria I think we match up in some ways already. Rob would have to be willing to embrace the philosophy even further to get us on the list though. Wonder if I can convince him to put me in charge of getting us on there for 2008?

Good annoyed

So I had a conversation today with a supplier of ours who hasn't been what I would consider up to scratch. The supplier instigated the conversation though, the manager called me directly to express how annoyed she was that we weren't putting as much business their way as they are used to. The thing is, I like that.

She was clearly annoyed with me because she felt they hadn't been treated fairly. Now whilst that's not a situation I aimed to orchestrate (I wouldn't intentionally want to annoy any of my suppliers) it pleased me that her reaction to that was to challenge, to fight her corner and to look at ways to address the problem. One of my issues for them in reality was that when we started to reduce the business we gave them, no-one spoke up. My main contact didn't call and kick up a fuss. In fact no-one called. For over 6 months.

I therefore don't think we did treat them unfairly. With so many people keen to work with us we can be choosy. I want the best suppliers all of the time. Yet just her calling and being annoyed, good annoyed, has pushed them way back up in my estimations. Had they never called, chances are I'd have never called them back. So her annoyance has really worked for them.

Now that the manager has got involved things are going to start moving. I'm going to see them in a couple of weeks to talk about how we proceed. OK there'll still need to be some improvements to their service. But maybe I've missed things and could improve in areas too. A dialogue will be had, strong opinions will doubtless be expressed and the whole set-up will be overhauled, hopefully for the better. It's a conversation I'm more than willing to have.

Read something written on paper

Happy World Book Day everybody! Here in the UK we like to get our book celebrating done early (the designated day for the rest of the world is April 23rd). So in the spirit of all things literary I urge everyone to do a bunk from work and bury themselves in a good book!

I was trying to think of my favourite book to recommend, then my 3 favourites, then my top 10 but it's too much of a struggle to pick! So instead, here are the first few that sprung to mind that I think people should give a go (with links to buy them, although if you have a good library nearby all should be available):

(Classics)
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome
Coming Up for Air by George Orwell

(Some modern sorts)
Armadillo by William Boyd
Complicity by Iain Banks
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
The Best a Man Can Get by John O'Farrell

I've enjoyed all of the above immensely so would love a couple in there to take your fancy. Despite being a bit of a book freak myself I know sitting for a couple of hours with just a good author for company isn't everyone's cup of tea. I think deep down though that anybody can be affected by a darn good read, so if it's not in your normal cycle to pick up a book when there's nothing on the telly, maybe World Book Day would be a good time to give it a go? Let me know how you get on if you do!

Honest memo

Quick link, from Execupundit, via Seth. The kind of memo bosses should be sending to their employees. My favourite:

11. Don't let all of my talk about meeting goals and producing results lead you into unethical behavior. You always have my permission to be ethical.

N.B. Two links from Seth Godin in two days, I am a shameless content-appropriator! In my defence though, even when I'm really busy I still find time to read Seth's blog and the links there are often bite-sized chunks of genius, so I always feel the urge to share!