Facebook's imbroglio over privacy reveals what may be a fatal business model. I know because my students at Parsons The New School For Design tell me so. They live on Facebook and they are furious at it. This was the technology platform they were born into, built their friendships around, and expected to be with them as they grew up, got jobs, and had families. They just assumed Facebook would evolve as their lives shifted from adolescent to adult and their needs changed. Facebook's failure to recognize this culture change deeply threatens its future profits. At the moment, it has an audience that is at war with its advertisers. Not good.
Here's why. Facebook is wildly successful because its founder matched new social media technology to a deep Western cultural longing — the adolescent desire for connection to other adolescents in their own private space. There they can be free to design their personal identities without adult supervision. Think digital tree house. Generation Y accepted Facebook as a free gift and proceeded to connect, express, and visualize the embarrassing aspects of their young lives.
Then Gen Y grew up and their culture and needs changed. My senior students started looking for jobs and watched, horrified, as corporations went on their Facebook pages to check them out. What was once a private, gated community of trusted friends became an increasingly open, public commons of curious strangers. The few, original, loose tools of network control on Facebook no longer proved sufficient. The Gen Yers wanted better, more precise privacy controls that allowed them to secure their existing private social lives and separate them from their new public working lives.
Facebook's business model, however, demands the opposite. It is trying to transform the private into a public arena it can offer advertisers. In doing this, the company is breaking three cardinal cultural norms:
1. It is taking back a free gift. In order to build profits, Facebook has been commercializing and monetizing friendship networks. What Facebook gave to Millenials, it is now trying to take away. Millennials are resisting the invasion to their privacy.
2. Facebook is ignoring the aging of the Millennials and the subsequent change in their culture. Older Gen Yers want less sociability and more privacy as actors outside their trusted cohort enter the Facebook space in search of information and connection. These older Millennials want more privacy tools for control of their information and networks.
3. Facebook is behaving as though it owned not only its proprietary technology platform but the friendship networks created on it. It doesn't. Millennials believe that ownership of their networks of friends belongs to them, not Facebook, and resist their commercialization.
Facebook, under intense pressure, is belatedly agreeing to streamline and strengthen its privacy tools. That will lower the anger of its audience but increase the anxiety of its advertisers. The brand value of Facebook has already taken a hit and competing social media platforms that promise privacy are beginning to appear.
What lessons can we draw from the Facebook flameup? Lifecycle changes can trump generational change and cultural values perceived as crucial at the age of 13 can be very different at 20. A business founded on the values of a generation, such as Facebook, has to keep up with, and respect, evolving lives and needs.
Ownership in the social media world of networks is different from selling products and services in the traditional marketplace. Understanding the underlying cultural context of "free," "gift," and "creation" is important to businesses, including and perhaps especially high tech companies. It is not impossible to monetize that which is free. Apple did that with 99 cent songs on iTunes. But it is difficult.
Giving economic value to social networks is the new holy grail in advertising and the media. An army of economists and mathematicians are at work on this task. To date, most of the work has focused on metrics — how many friends, how many linkages, how much influence. Facebook's problems with privacy highlight the need to understand culture as well.
Bruce Nussbaum, former assistant managing editor for Business Week, is professor of Innovation and Design at Parsons School of Design.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tips for Making Small Talk With Bigwigs
One of the things that can befuddle managers, even experienced ones, is how to make small talk with the big boss.
When you are talking about someone who has authority over you, be it your boss's boss or the CEO, the word "small" becomes relative. Anything involving a boss can have a big impact. Conversation with a superior can be fraught with peril but it can also be a great opportunity. Peril comes from the fear of saying the wrong thing; opportunity arises because you can reveal a new dimension of yourself to other.
You can increase the odds of success if you prepare. Yes, actually plan out what you will say to the senior manager. This works well if you know that the CEO is coming to visit your department or if you have the opportunity chat with him at an all-employee gathering. So here's what you can do.
Do your homework. Learn the issues the senior team is focused on. Ideally everyone in the company should know the strategic priorities. Bone up on these so you know them, too. Think in advance what you will say to a senior person if you meet her in person. Work out a key message about your projects, your career and yourself. This is good practice whether you meet a senior person or not. Finally, if it's a more social meeting, you might try to learn of a boss's personal interests — hobbies, sports he or she likes, or their volunteer activities.
Be yourself. When you are introduced to the senior leader, make eye contact as you shake hands. Smile and act relaxed. Feel free to ask questions about what's going on in the company. If appropriate, talk about what you are working on. This is your opportunity to use your messages. Strive to be brief and to the point.
Read the situation. Keep speaking if the boss is interested; if not, thank the person for his time and move on, even when you didn't get the opportunity to use your key messages. In some ways your sense of decorum is more important than what you say. Rattling on when no one is interested marks you as lacking in self-awareness; knowing when to end the conversation says much about your ability to read the situation.
Such preparation is good when you know in advance you may meet a senior executive or a member of the board, but what about accidental encounters, say at the airport, a social gathering, or even a sporting event? The good news is that what works for prepared encounters works for impromptu ones. Just assume that someday soon you will run into a senior person and prepare for it as you would for a more predictable encounter. And that preparation will pay off in other contexts too, such as during team meetings or conversations with clients.
That's why you should practice your key messages from time to time, say on your drive to work. You can even practice by recording them on your mobile phone, just to see how you sound. The exercise will give you confidence that you have what it takes to have a clear and coherent conversation with people in power.
One of my favorite stories about Winston Churchill, taken from Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes, is an encounter he had with a young New Zealand airman during the Second World War. The airman had crawled out of the cockpit of a bomber with an engine on fire and extinguished the flames. When Churchill met the young man he noted the lad's nervousness. "You must feel very humble and awkward in my presence," Churchill said. When the man said he was, Churchill replied, "Then you can imagine how awkward and humble I feel in yours."
Never forget that senior leaders are people first; executives second. Never forget your own personal abilities. And never forget that making small talk can have a big impact on your career.
When you are talking about someone who has authority over you, be it your boss's boss or the CEO, the word "small" becomes relative. Anything involving a boss can have a big impact. Conversation with a superior can be fraught with peril but it can also be a great opportunity. Peril comes from the fear of saying the wrong thing; opportunity arises because you can reveal a new dimension of yourself to other.
You can increase the odds of success if you prepare. Yes, actually plan out what you will say to the senior manager. This works well if you know that the CEO is coming to visit your department or if you have the opportunity chat with him at an all-employee gathering. So here's what you can do.
Do your homework. Learn the issues the senior team is focused on. Ideally everyone in the company should know the strategic priorities. Bone up on these so you know them, too. Think in advance what you will say to a senior person if you meet her in person. Work out a key message about your projects, your career and yourself. This is good practice whether you meet a senior person or not. Finally, if it's a more social meeting, you might try to learn of a boss's personal interests — hobbies, sports he or she likes, or their volunteer activities.
Be yourself. When you are introduced to the senior leader, make eye contact as you shake hands. Smile and act relaxed. Feel free to ask questions about what's going on in the company. If appropriate, talk about what you are working on. This is your opportunity to use your messages. Strive to be brief and to the point.
Read the situation. Keep speaking if the boss is interested; if not, thank the person for his time and move on, even when you didn't get the opportunity to use your key messages. In some ways your sense of decorum is more important than what you say. Rattling on when no one is interested marks you as lacking in self-awareness; knowing when to end the conversation says much about your ability to read the situation.
Such preparation is good when you know in advance you may meet a senior executive or a member of the board, but what about accidental encounters, say at the airport, a social gathering, or even a sporting event? The good news is that what works for prepared encounters works for impromptu ones. Just assume that someday soon you will run into a senior person and prepare for it as you would for a more predictable encounter. And that preparation will pay off in other contexts too, such as during team meetings or conversations with clients.
That's why you should practice your key messages from time to time, say on your drive to work. You can even practice by recording them on your mobile phone, just to see how you sound. The exercise will give you confidence that you have what it takes to have a clear and coherent conversation with people in power.
One of my favorite stories about Winston Churchill, taken from Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes, is an encounter he had with a young New Zealand airman during the Second World War. The airman had crawled out of the cockpit of a bomber with an engine on fire and extinguished the flames. When Churchill met the young man he noted the lad's nervousness. "You must feel very humble and awkward in my presence," Churchill said. When the man said he was, Churchill replied, "Then you can imagine how awkward and humble I feel in yours."
Never forget that senior leaders are people first; executives second. Never forget your own personal abilities. And never forget that making small talk can have a big impact on your career.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Speaking From a Podium: Simple Tips to Get Started
Speaking from a podium presents different challenges than other forms of public speaking. So the best preparation is to simulate the podium experience.
For example, when Barack Obama had to debate John McCain at Old Miss in 2008, his team created an exact replica of the stage where Obama would debate McCain. "No detail was overlooked," according to a Newsweek retrospective published just after the election. Incredibly, Obama even rehearsed in the evenings because the debate would be in the evening, and this would "match his natural circadian rhythms."
This concept is nothing new. Obama was simulating the full experience. It's why actors and dancers have dress rehearsals and soldiers have military exercises.
But you don't need a stage or replica board room to prepare for your own presentation. Here's the way to do it in a stepped-down manner and get the same benefits:
Put your script or notes on a stack of books or something that will elevate them for easy viewing. At home or in a conference room, this will simulate the podium experience. Use your speaking voice as you would on stage, and imagine that you're speaking to an audience.
Keep your feet planted and stand straight. This will empower you. Stepping back and forth, slouching, shifting weight — these can convey anxiety.
Consult the notes or script as much as you need during run-throughs. Repetition will enable you to look down less often, so you can increase eye contact with your listeners.
Have the script in large type, amply spaced — or use notes. You'll be able to find your place more readily after looking at the audience. Why invite panicky moments when you lose your place or need to check a figure?
Do not memorize, unless it's very brief. Doing so will introduce a whole new dimension of anxiety. After a lot of rehearsal, you may be able to speak almost from memory, and that's fine. But if you hold yourself to a word-for-word standard, you're inviting anxiety when a phrase doesn't fall in place.
Make a place for your hands. Lightly grip either side of a straight-backed chair at home — or if it's a side chair in a conference room chair, grip the top — and then forget about your hands. They'll come up naturally to gesture at times.
Write a reminder. In large letters with a red pen, print atop your notes or script a single, important reminder. Choose well. It might be, "Speak Slowly." Or, "Make Eye Contact." Or, "Slow Down." Take it to heart just before you start speaking.
Afterward, you may hear that your presentation was better than your self-assessment. This often means the anxiety you were feeling didn't come through because you created a steady physical presence up there. Yes, you may have felt unnatural or "manufactured," but it came across as confidently in command.
Once you've developed enough confidence and a good style at the mike, the value of this rehearsal regimen declines. Moreover, you may well discover shortcuts or tips of your own. Do you have any you can share now, which you think might help others?
Daniel Kennedy is an adjunct professor within the Graduate School of Management at UC Davis, where he has taught presentation skills and public communications strategy to MBA students for more than two decades. He also coaches executives, professors, and even children in the craft of public speaking.
For example, when Barack Obama had to debate John McCain at Old Miss in 2008, his team created an exact replica of the stage where Obama would debate McCain. "No detail was overlooked," according to a Newsweek retrospective published just after the election. Incredibly, Obama even rehearsed in the evenings because the debate would be in the evening, and this would "match his natural circadian rhythms."
This concept is nothing new. Obama was simulating the full experience. It's why actors and dancers have dress rehearsals and soldiers have military exercises.
But you don't need a stage or replica board room to prepare for your own presentation. Here's the way to do it in a stepped-down manner and get the same benefits:
Put your script or notes on a stack of books or something that will elevate them for easy viewing. At home or in a conference room, this will simulate the podium experience. Use your speaking voice as you would on stage, and imagine that you're speaking to an audience.
Keep your feet planted and stand straight. This will empower you. Stepping back and forth, slouching, shifting weight — these can convey anxiety.
Consult the notes or script as much as you need during run-throughs. Repetition will enable you to look down less often, so you can increase eye contact with your listeners.
Have the script in large type, amply spaced — or use notes. You'll be able to find your place more readily after looking at the audience. Why invite panicky moments when you lose your place or need to check a figure?
Do not memorize, unless it's very brief. Doing so will introduce a whole new dimension of anxiety. After a lot of rehearsal, you may be able to speak almost from memory, and that's fine. But if you hold yourself to a word-for-word standard, you're inviting anxiety when a phrase doesn't fall in place.
Make a place for your hands. Lightly grip either side of a straight-backed chair at home — or if it's a side chair in a conference room chair, grip the top — and then forget about your hands. They'll come up naturally to gesture at times.
Write a reminder. In large letters with a red pen, print atop your notes or script a single, important reminder. Choose well. It might be, "Speak Slowly." Or, "Make Eye Contact." Or, "Slow Down." Take it to heart just before you start speaking.
Afterward, you may hear that your presentation was better than your self-assessment. This often means the anxiety you were feeling didn't come through because you created a steady physical presence up there. Yes, you may have felt unnatural or "manufactured," but it came across as confidently in command.
Once you've developed enough confidence and a good style at the mike, the value of this rehearsal regimen declines. Moreover, you may well discover shortcuts or tips of your own. Do you have any you can share now, which you think might help others?
Daniel Kennedy is an adjunct professor within the Graduate School of Management at UC Davis, where he has taught presentation skills and public communications strategy to MBA students for more than two decades. He also coaches executives, professors, and even children in the craft of public speaking.
The Worth-Your-Time Test
Nate Eisman* recently started working for a large consulting firm after many years as an independent consultant. He called me a few days ago for some advice.
"I'm wasting a tremendous amount of time," he complained to me, "I'm in meetings all day. The only way I can get any real work done is by coming in super early and staying super late."
Nate had gone from an organization of one to an organization of several thousand and was drowning in the time suck of collaboration. He is not alone.
I recently surveyed the top 400 leaders of a 120,000 person company and found that close to 95% of them — that's 380 out of 400 — pointed to three things that wasted their time the most: unnecessary meetings, unimportant emails, and protracted PowerPoints.
Working with people takes time. And different people have different priorities. So someone may need your perspective on an issue that's important to him but not to you. Still, if he's a colleague, it's important to help. And often we want to help.
On the other hand, we've all felt Nate's pain. The question is: how can we spend time where we add the most value and let go of the rest?
We need a way to quickly and confidently identify and reduce our extraneous commitments, to know for sure whether we need to deal with something or avoid it, and to manage our own desire to be available always. I propose a little test that every commitment should pass before you agree to it. When someone comes to you with a request, ask yourself three questions:
Am I the right person?
Is this the right time?
Do I have enough information?
If the request fails the test — if the answer to any one of these questions is "no" — then don't do it. Pass it to someone else (the right person), schedule it for another time (the right time), or wait until you have the information you need (either you or someone else needs to get it).
In the last few weeks, in The Cardinal Rule of Rules and in The Mostly Unplugged Vacation I wrote about how to avoid being interrupted. But sometimes it's impossible or inappropriate to wall yourself off completely. For example, what if your boss is the person who interrupts you? Or what if you're on vacation and a critical client reaches out with a time sensitive and crucial question?
These three questions offer a clear, easy, and consistent way of knowing when to respond. So we resist the temptation to respond to everything.
If your boss asks you to do something and her request fails the test, it's not just okay - it's useful - to push back or redirect so the work is completed productively. It's not helpful to you, your boss, or your organization if you waste your time on the wrong work.
That's the irony. We try to be so available because we want to be helpful. And yet being overwhelmed with tasks — especially those we consider to be a waste of our time — is exactly what will make us unhelpful.
When we get a meeting request that doesn't pass the test, we should decline. When we're cc'd on an email that doesn't pass the test, we need to ask the sender to remove us from the list before we get caught up in the flurry of "reply all" responses. And a fifty-page presentation needs to pass the test before we read it (and even then, it's worth an email asking which are the critical pages to review).
A few weeks after sharing the three questions with Nate, I called him at his office at around 6pm to see how it was going. I guess it was going well because I never reached him. He had already gone home.
"I'm wasting a tremendous amount of time," he complained to me, "I'm in meetings all day. The only way I can get any real work done is by coming in super early and staying super late."
Nate had gone from an organization of one to an organization of several thousand and was drowning in the time suck of collaboration. He is not alone.
I recently surveyed the top 400 leaders of a 120,000 person company and found that close to 95% of them — that's 380 out of 400 — pointed to three things that wasted their time the most: unnecessary meetings, unimportant emails, and protracted PowerPoints.
Working with people takes time. And different people have different priorities. So someone may need your perspective on an issue that's important to him but not to you. Still, if he's a colleague, it's important to help. And often we want to help.
On the other hand, we've all felt Nate's pain. The question is: how can we spend time where we add the most value and let go of the rest?
We need a way to quickly and confidently identify and reduce our extraneous commitments, to know for sure whether we need to deal with something or avoid it, and to manage our own desire to be available always. I propose a little test that every commitment should pass before you agree to it. When someone comes to you with a request, ask yourself three questions:
Am I the right person?
Is this the right time?
Do I have enough information?
If the request fails the test — if the answer to any one of these questions is "no" — then don't do it. Pass it to someone else (the right person), schedule it for another time (the right time), or wait until you have the information you need (either you or someone else needs to get it).
In the last few weeks, in The Cardinal Rule of Rules and in The Mostly Unplugged Vacation I wrote about how to avoid being interrupted. But sometimes it's impossible or inappropriate to wall yourself off completely. For example, what if your boss is the person who interrupts you? Or what if you're on vacation and a critical client reaches out with a time sensitive and crucial question?
These three questions offer a clear, easy, and consistent way of knowing when to respond. So we resist the temptation to respond to everything.
If your boss asks you to do something and her request fails the test, it's not just okay - it's useful - to push back or redirect so the work is completed productively. It's not helpful to you, your boss, or your organization if you waste your time on the wrong work.
That's the irony. We try to be so available because we want to be helpful. And yet being overwhelmed with tasks — especially those we consider to be a waste of our time — is exactly what will make us unhelpful.
When we get a meeting request that doesn't pass the test, we should decline. When we're cc'd on an email that doesn't pass the test, we need to ask the sender to remove us from the list before we get caught up in the flurry of "reply all" responses. And a fifty-page presentation needs to pass the test before we read it (and even then, it's worth an email asking which are the critical pages to review).
A few weeks after sharing the three questions with Nate, I called him at his office at around 6pm to see how it was going. I guess it was going well because I never reached him. He had already gone home.
Could Your Organization Be Bipartisan?
The term "bipartisan" seems to be having a renaissance these days, particularly in Washington. Unfortunately while everyone agrees that bipartisanship is a good thing, nobody seems to know how to do it. So despite all of the dialogue, forums, campaign promises, speeches, and political theater, most issues (like health care reform, jobs creation, and climate management) are either stalemated by fundamental disagreements or pushed forward by the power of majority votes.
As we watch our political leaders struggle with the reality of bipartisan agreement, however, it might be worth thinking about the bipartisan dynamics in your own firm. In truth, every organization has factions (we don't call them "parties") that disagree about what to do or how to do it. Sometimes these factions are based on deeply held beliefs and philosophies. At other times the factions are based on personal loyalty to one senior leader vs. another; or to one "power center" vs. another (such as country vs. headquarters or function vs. field); or to one group vs. another (e.g. old-timers vs. newcomers or heritage company vs. acquired company).
No matter what the factions in your organization, one of the toughest managerial jobs — at any level — is to bring people together in a bipartisan or multi-partisan way to get things done. If bridging the gap between different factions is part of your job, here are some simple rules of thumb to keep in mind:
Start by getting consensus on what problem needs to be solved and how to sharply define it. Ask what success will look like a year from now. Test assumptions about what needs to be accomplished. Then use these initial discussions to bring people together around a compelling goal while leaving open how it will be achieved. The key is to get beyond the huge, vague goals (e.g. "we need to reform our health care system") to more narrow and specific goals (e.g. "we need to improve health care for children from ages __ to __ in the following ways while reducing overall costs.") Note: This is an example and not a suggestion!
Identify a range of solutions — the more the better. To develop these solutions, bring the different factions together for a brainstorming session — either physically or virtually. Encourage all ideas without judgment or analysis, and help people build on each other's thoughts. Working in this way transforms the various ideas from "my idea" alone into a "shared work product." For example, imagine if President Obama had held brainstorming sessions with Democrats and Republicans early on to develop a range of possible solutions to health care.
Assign bipartisan (or cross-faction) teams to flesh out and assess the different solutions. Have the teams work through the costs and benefits of the ideas and to what extent each will achieve the required goal. By getting people from different factions to actually work together, you will break down the divisions and refocus everyone on achieving goals instead of presenting positions. Again, imagine joint teams of Democrats and Republicans actually working together to develop legislative solutions.
Get some early wins to reinforce a continuing process of bipartisan achievement. Finally, while dialogue is important and critical for bipartisan agreement, real achievement is the ultimate key to success. So as soon as possible pick one or two ideas developed by joint teams that can be moved into action quickly, and use those to build momentum for further cycles of bipartisan collaboration.
Obviously there are other dynamics that constrain bipartisan collaboration in Washington and other capitals of the world; and these simple steps might not always be possible in highly polarized political environments. But if your organization has partisan divisions of various kinds, they might work for you. And who knows, they might even work in Washington!
As we watch our political leaders struggle with the reality of bipartisan agreement, however, it might be worth thinking about the bipartisan dynamics in your own firm. In truth, every organization has factions (we don't call them "parties") that disagree about what to do or how to do it. Sometimes these factions are based on deeply held beliefs and philosophies. At other times the factions are based on personal loyalty to one senior leader vs. another; or to one "power center" vs. another (such as country vs. headquarters or function vs. field); or to one group vs. another (e.g. old-timers vs. newcomers or heritage company vs. acquired company).
No matter what the factions in your organization, one of the toughest managerial jobs — at any level — is to bring people together in a bipartisan or multi-partisan way to get things done. If bridging the gap between different factions is part of your job, here are some simple rules of thumb to keep in mind:
Start by getting consensus on what problem needs to be solved and how to sharply define it. Ask what success will look like a year from now. Test assumptions about what needs to be accomplished. Then use these initial discussions to bring people together around a compelling goal while leaving open how it will be achieved. The key is to get beyond the huge, vague goals (e.g. "we need to reform our health care system") to more narrow and specific goals (e.g. "we need to improve health care for children from ages __ to __ in the following ways while reducing overall costs.") Note: This is an example and not a suggestion!
Identify a range of solutions — the more the better. To develop these solutions, bring the different factions together for a brainstorming session — either physically or virtually. Encourage all ideas without judgment or analysis, and help people build on each other's thoughts. Working in this way transforms the various ideas from "my idea" alone into a "shared work product." For example, imagine if President Obama had held brainstorming sessions with Democrats and Republicans early on to develop a range of possible solutions to health care.
Assign bipartisan (or cross-faction) teams to flesh out and assess the different solutions. Have the teams work through the costs and benefits of the ideas and to what extent each will achieve the required goal. By getting people from different factions to actually work together, you will break down the divisions and refocus everyone on achieving goals instead of presenting positions. Again, imagine joint teams of Democrats and Republicans actually working together to develop legislative solutions.
Get some early wins to reinforce a continuing process of bipartisan achievement. Finally, while dialogue is important and critical for bipartisan agreement, real achievement is the ultimate key to success. So as soon as possible pick one or two ideas developed by joint teams that can be moved into action quickly, and use those to build momentum for further cycles of bipartisan collaboration.
Obviously there are other dynamics that constrain bipartisan collaboration in Washington and other capitals of the world; and these simple steps might not always be possible in highly polarized political environments. But if your organization has partisan divisions of various kinds, they might work for you. And who knows, they might even work in Washington!
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