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January 30 Liked or respected (repeated by popular demand)Are YOU liked or respected at work?
I urge you to take a moment to think about this simple question. First write down which one you would prefer. Second write down, honestly, the answers that your ten or twenty closest colleagues would give – include peers, sub-ordinates, and bosses. Third make an assessment on balance of how you stack up.
Remember there is no right answer here there is only the answer that your habits and behaviours evoke.
So you discover you are more respected than liked and you are not happy about that outcome.
Problem is if you are well respected and you work in a hierarchy then you probably do not want to change that perception of yourself or of your authority. In hierarchical regimes it is far far better to be respected than liked. This is why certain people, especially females, hit a glass ceiling. “Yeah everyone really likes her but she has yet to win their respect” is what you might hear in the board room while discussing future appointments to senior management roles.
In a hierarchy you need to become “a well respected leader”. Forgot all the “well meaning advice” you have read on leadership and management – it is not like that at the coalface. Within hierarchies the most respected leaders are not team players - they are egotists who cast a big shadow over their workplace. Sometimes they are simply feared, sometimes they are respected for their determination, sometimes they are merely respected for their position, sometimes they are respected for the 'hard decisions' they have taken but rarely are they liked.
Solution is if you want to be liked then join a flat organisation. Join a networked organisation. Join a digital revenue stream. Join a community of workers and consumers who cooperate to form a C21st workplace. Being liked or likeable is YOUR key asset in this new world of business. January 28 What is your storyline for 2009 and beyond....We all need a simple storyline for ourselves and our colleagues for a recession clad 2009 and beyond. Do you have two or three words that A) describe you or your profession B) describe how you do what you do. The two words I use to describe myself are 'digital warrior'. The three words I use to describe how I do what I do are Clear, Hold, and Build. What is your storyline? What are your simple descriptors? January 23 You are at the center of opportunity....My grandmother use to tell me to "be prepared for the time when opportunity knocks on your door". Today you have opportunities all around you. The meltdown of the financial markets has cleared a pathway for you to do new and exciting things. The whole world is de-leveraging and you are about to leverage. You are about to take risks when others are risk averse. You are about to discount your assets to their current value and thus to deflate the bubble effect that has been holding you back from doing new things with your talent, imagination, and experience. You have been liberated from the continuity that kept you doing what you did yesterday. You can see that tomorrow it is possible to be doing entirely new things in entirely new ways. Would you like to rent a Digital Warrior? Richard Lipscombe is a digital warrior for rent. I work on digital business issues for a monthly retainer. I will travel to a client site anywhere in the world but I prefer to work as a virtual input to your business. I prefer to work on digital network design, build, and maintenance issues. Also, I prefer to work on user or customer issues - with a clear emphasis on building web-based networks that link clusters, clans, and tribes. I can work equally well with your staff or with your customer base. Contact me at lipscombe.richard@gmail.com January 22 My symbol of hope is Barack's blackberry....I see Barack's blackberry as a lifeline to the outside world - a source of liberation and solace from the constant beat of 'group think'... There should be a sign on every office door of the West Wing - "Welcome to The White House were every problem ever faced by mankind has already been solved" (please be assured that in your top draw is your unique code - enter it into your computer and you will never have to "think" for yourself or by yourself ever again - Welcome to the world of 'group think').... Strikes me there are just four people in this new administration that must not be allowed to become swept up into White House 'group think' - Barack, Rahm, Valerie, and David. I am sure that fighting the powers of 'group think' is what prematurely ages Presidents. The President will go into a meeting day after day with 'new and bold ideas' only to return to the Oval Office with the same old problem - how to get the White House staff to do what he wants them to do... Barack's blackberry will be a symbol of change for me - it will signal to me that he is willing and able to take on (if not to stare down) the White House 'group think' regime.... Would you like to rent a Digital Warrior?Richard Lipscombe is a digital warrior for rent. I work on digital business issues for a monthly retainer. I will travel to a client site anywhere in the world but I prefer to work as a virtual input to your business. I prefer to work on digital network design, build, and maintenance issues. Also, I prefer to work on user or customer issues - with a clear emphasis on building web-based networks that link clusters, clans, and tribes. I can work equally well with your staff or with your customer base. Contact me at lipscombe.richard@gmail.com January 21 Being adequate is perfect for our times....Ben Graham is a
sweet kick of a football. He will next be on show in Tampa playing for
the Arizona Cardinals against the Pitsburgh Steelers at the Super
Bowl. Ben might get to show the world how well he kicks a 'drop punt'
(a talent honed playing Australian Rules Football for Geelong) and if
his team is up to the job he might come away with a Super Bowl Winner's
Ring. Just 7 weeks ago Ben Graham was unemployed and practicising his kicking in a park in New Jersey. Until early this season he had punted for the New York Jets. He was sacked re-engaged and sacked again. For one week he was picked up by New Orleans but let go again. Then the Arizona Cardlinals approached him - they knew they were headed for the play offs and they wanted Ben because he could adequately meet the needs of their team. In the play offs Arizona would probably have to play one game in the snow and Ben had experience playing in snow and icy conditions. As the play offs turned out Arizona did not have to play in snow or ice. Nonetheless Ben Graham has proven he is an adequate punter for them and so together they are off to the Super Bowl. Are you adequate in meeting your team's needs? January 20 Are you part of a Tribe or a Clan?Do you leave comments on blogs - not here, no one does that although I have never discouraged it. If so do you find you have become part of the Tribe or the Clan? Be honest when you answer because that answer will give you great insights into your mindset and motivation going into 2009. If you are part of the Tribe you agree with the blog and all the positive comments - you may debate the small print or detail but you agree. In general you are part of the 'group think' that is going on there. If you are part of the Clan you often disagree and thus find yourself (sometimes unwittingly so times purposefully) facilitating a long debate about meanings given to words and into the entrails of the Tribal Culture you are seen to be opposed to there. A few blogs have a way of encouraging Clans rather than Tribes to take hold of their comments pages but far too few. Clans are full of early adopters, thought leaders, prototypers, weird people, crazy people, etc. Which are you? Which would you like to be in 2009? Would you like to rent a Digital Warrior? Richard Lipscombe is a digital warrior for rent. I work on digital business issues for a monthly retainer. I will travel to a client site anywhere in the world but I prefer to work as a virtual input to your business. I prefer to work on digital network design, build, and maintenance issues. Also, I prefer to work on user or customer issues - with a clear emphasis on building web-based networks that link clusters, clans, and tribes. I can work equally well with your staff or with your customer base. Contact me at lipscombe.richard@gmail.com. 2009 is a time for you to be bold (and beautiful)...How bold are you prepared to be in 2009? How beautiful do you think you can be? Are you bold enough to tell the world your story? Tell it in a funny self-effacing way. Tell it as it happened not as you would like to remember it. Tell it with empathy for those who made your life a better journey along the way. Tell it in a simple and straightforward way without the need to ramp it up! If you do this be prepared for a shock - you will be seen in a new light, your true beauty as a person will come shining through..... Would you like to rent a digital warrior? I am a digital warrior - you will most likely find me daydreaming about all manner of things BUT especially about digital networks at lipscombe.richard@gmail.com. January 19 January 20th brings us the first Digital Age President of America.....I posted this, my draft of the Inauguration Speech by Barack Obama, on 20th December 2008. It is repeated here by request...... Theme --- Prepare yourself to make a difference through personal sacrifice? One thing is clear - the next decade is going to be very different to the last. This difference will have a universal impact and yet it will also impact directly upon you as an individual. We all have to make sacrifices if we are to reap the enormous benefits of these times. By way of helping you to set your agenda for the next 10 years, let me pose a few simple questions to each of you. How much education do you have? How much knowledge do you possess? How creative are you with ideas and change? How do you intend to live and work over the next 5 to 10 years? How much do you think you have to change - your habits, mindsets, and ways of thinking about your world if you are to fully benefit from the emerging global economy? If you are deficient in education or work choices or flexibility of mind and habit then you will have to sacrifice more than you might have been expecting to reap the huge benefits coming our way over the next 10 years. Ahead is a period of great opportunities. These opportunities are greater for the fact that they were almost completely unexpected just 5 years ago. The challenge ahead for those of you who want to make the most of your opportunities are few but nonetheless important. First and foremost you have to embrace new technology. This might well mean you have to sacrifice as you are forced to retrain, move jobs, move location, and generally rearrange your life's priorities. As I stand before you as your newly elected President there is one self evident fact - the new digital global economy is here to stay. This digital economy is forming a new middle class that lives in China, India, Asia, Africa, and South America. Americans have to workout where we fit in this new global schema. You have to work out where you fit and what you can bring to the table so that your family might benefit from all the new prosperity that is coming our way. Second all Americans, and that includes YOU, must now accept the challenge of living, working, and doing business on a green planet. A planet that has to dramatically and quickly lower its carbon footprint. Accepting this challenge is not easy because it means taking on some real sacrifices. It means changing habits, mindsets, and ways of thinking that have been with you all your life. It means becoming a minimalist where carbon is concerned which, in turn, means having and using less of most of what you take for granted today. Are you preparing to go green in your life, at work, and within your community? Third some of you have to be prepared to put yourselves in "harms way" as we continue to engage our enemies wherever they may be. These are not conflicts of our choosing and if we can negotiate a peace to end them then we will BUT, be assured sometimes we have to fight for our freedom as others have fought for on our behalf in the distance and the recent past. Fourth we all have to sacrifice if we are to build a new sense of "social cohesion" across the length and the breath of America. The gap between our haves and our havenots must be closed. We can no longer merely continue to "paper over" these gaps with increased entitlements or earmarked grants from Washington. Instead all Americans must now adopt a "zero tolerance" for any lack of transparency, accountability, or equity within our Governments, businesses, or communities. We can no longer tolerate the "self-centered" actions of those who like to paper over the cracks to make themselves look good, those who want to deny inequality of opportunity because they fear competition, or those who are not prepared to be held fully accountable for their own actions. Finally my administration will be transparent, accountable, and equitable in all its dealings with you and your community. Together we can and we will rebuild America.... Yes we can... Yes we can.... January 13 Digital clouds forming....Digital networks supported by cloud computing - which is a web-based computing capacity that you have access to as if it was inside your PC. Cloud computing is just one more step towards the fast approaching digital age. Taking full advantage of this digital age will not be difficult for those who give up their analogue thinking. Digital thinking is based around network not private capacity, notions of abundance not scarcity, and cooperation not competition. Would you like to rent a digital warrior? Beware of analogue ghosting....Going digital means 'getting beyond people'. Digital network link clusters of people activities, conversations, or cultures whereas analogue networks are a series of people-based activities, conversations, or cultures. When you go digital you have to remain vigilant for ghosting from analogue systems. Ghosting from the analogue world can happen in two ways 1) real-time interference 2) echoes from the past. Overlaps in real time with analogue systems are to be avoided so that ghosting can not occur. Old analogue cultures or processes have to be terminated - yeah I mean killed off as in dead and buried - or they will continue to haunt your digital world. Would you like to rent a digital warrior? Richard Lipscombe - digital warrior for rent. I work on digital business issues for a monthly retainer. I will travel to a client site anywhere in the world but I prefer to work as a virtual input to your business. I prefer to work on digital network design, build, and maintenance issues. Also, I prefer to work on user or customer issues - with a clear emphasis on building web-based networks that link clusters, clans, and tribes. I can work equally well with your staff or with your customer base. Contact me at lipscombe.richard@gmail.com. January 12 Experience rich and theory poor....Your ongoing understanding of C21st business in theory, and in practice, could come down to the quality of your insights into the web, clans, and tribes. To help you to better understand those entities you may need to slough off much of what you hold as indisputable truths. I suggest you take more comfort from your imagination than your intuition until things settle down around 2015. Would you like to rent a digital warrior? Richard Lipscombe - digital warrior for rent. I work on digital business issues for a monthly retainer. I will travel to a client site anywhere in the world but I prefer to work as a virtual input to your business. I prefer to work on digital network design, build, and maintenance issues. Also, I prefer to work on user or customer issues - with a clear emphasis on building web-based networks that link clusters, clans, and tribes. I can work equally well with your staff or with your customer base. Contact me at lipscombe.richard@gmail.com. January 11 Digital clans...Digital clans are innovation cells or incubators. They are formed by early adopters of new ideas. They are formed by people who cooperate to pursue their collective idea through new design or prototypes. They are informal clusters that are connected by the web. They form to dissippate rather than store ideas or information. They lack processes, due diligence, and rigor. They are great siphons for the ideas of others around the global digital network. They often lack purpose and drive. They often get side tracked into the new and the bold. They are constantly reforming. They are exciting clusters to participate with or within. They are cooperatives. Would you like to rent a digital warrior? Richard Lipscombe - digital warrior for rent. I work on digital business issues for a monthly retainer. I will travel to a client site anywhere in the world but I prefer to work as a virtual input to your business. I prefer to work on digital network design, build, and maintenance issues. Also, I prefer to work on user or customer issues - with a clear emphasis on building web-based networks that link clusters, clans, and tribes. I can work equally well with your staff or with your customer base. Contact me at lipscombe.richard@gmail.com. Digital tribes...Digital tribes are quickly recognisable among > 55 year olds. Yeah it is the old guys and gals who use digital technologies the most to do what analogue technologies use to do for them. They shop online. They bank online. They search for a raft of services by going online. I call them digital tribes because they have changed the way they do things but not their core values and beliefs. They have embraced digital technologies and networks as a convenience without embracing the digital revolution. Digital tribes exist amongst the < 55 year olds too. These tribes are very different because they embrace the new possibilities brought to them by hand-held devices, web-based social networks, blogging, news feeds, etc. These digital tribes are establishing new mores, values, and sets of consumer behaviours that match the global reach and connectivity of this new technology platform. These tribes are consumers of products and services that are purpose-built for their needs. These tribes are forming the anchor for digital businesses for the next hundred years. These tribes are reframing the production and distribution processing within their global digital networks. Would you like to rent a digital warrior?Richard
Lipscombe - digital warrior for rent. I work on digital business
issues for a monthly retainer. I will travel to a client site anywhere
in the world but I prefer to work as a virtual input to your business.
I prefer to work on digital network design, build, and maintenance
issues. Also, I prefer to work on user or customer issues - with a
clear emphasis on building web-based networks that link clusters,
clans, and tribes. I can work equally well with your staff or with
your customer base. Contact me at lipscombe.richard@gmail.com. January 09 Digital warrior for rent...Richard Lipscombe - digital warrior for rent. I work on digital business issues for a monthly retainer. I will travel to a client site anywhere in the world but I prefer to work as a virtual input to your business. I prefer to work on digital network design, build, and maintenance issues. Also, I prefer to work on user or customer issues - with a clear emphasis on building web-based networks that link clusters, clans, and tribes. I can work equally well with your staff or with your customer base. Contact me at lipscombe.richard@gmail.com. A culture of automation...2009 is the time to go digital at your workplace. It is the time to build automated networks. Networks that link cluster of users. Networks that facilitate those clusters that are full of innovators and early adopters - here we call them Clans. Networks that facilitate those clusters that are full of ritual behaviours and ideologies - here we call them Tribes. Automated networks with rapid feedback systems is what is needed in these testing times. January 08 Digital music - convenience and price....Apple moves to make digital business smarter - they have removed copy protection from your downloaded digital music. Digital music is available at different prices but the real deal is it is convenient. Hear a song on your radio that you just have to have - well within a nanosecond it is yours. It is delivered to you in the way that is most convenient for you and at a price that you are more than willing to pay. 2009 may provide us with a gateway to digital business. Web-based business starts with conversations...What facilities or systems do you have within your business, organisation, or community to foster web-based conversations? Not many is probably your answer! Well, by the end of 2009, you better dramatically improve your web-based capabilities. My constant message has been that businesses have to get beyond people. By that I mean we have to jettison our C20th people-based management systems in favour of web-based systems. Automate people processes with internet processes. But to do that we have to change our habits, mindsets, and ways of being in business. Web-based businesses will be distribution networks. The more successful of them will focus on the conversations between consumers not staff. This means the business process is about to be turned inside out. Whereas the C20th focus was on the talent of the staff: the C21st focus will have to be on the talent of consumers. Web-based business will have to manage, exploit, and meet the new demands of web-based consumers. These consumers, as you know if you read this missive regularly, are forming clusters, clans, and tribes. We are entering a new era: an era of consumer power. An era of consumer power that will far exceed anything we have experienced before. The extent and reach of this consumer power will be reflected by the web-based conversations. Where these conversations support tribal consumer behaviours then innovation will be limited. Where these conversations support clans of early adopters then innovations will flourish. Listen attentively to your web-based consumer conversations and build your new business capabilities accordingly. January 06 Clans should do well in 2009.... 2009 is a time of great change - well that is what the pundits say. Clans are change orientated and so they will do well. If your business is a network based on Clans then you can expect to do very well this year. If you work for such a business then your job should be safe. If you work for a business that is a network based on Tribes then you may have reason to be concerned about your future prospects. What I expect is more talk about innovation, change, and new ideas and less action on them than we have seen in any previous year this decade. The pundits will talk about the big picture and change but they will do what the Tribes dictate. Tribes thrive on continuity not change. Tribes demand stability, certainty, and equity. Tribes will always press for more rules and regulations rather than new ideas, mindsets, and frameworks for action. So what you will hear most about in 2009 is not about to get transformed into action. This is not the year of living dangerously but rather the year of much talk and very little action. January 05 Welcome to 2009....There are 20,000 Israeli troops fighting over The Gaza Strip - welcome to 2009! January 03 Tribal rule....Tribes are tight knit clusters that affirm continuity. Support within these tribes is irrational but resilient. Each tribe will act in what it perceives as it own best interests and thus will act like most other tribes around the world. They will mimic each other in a vain attempt to gain a larger share of a smaller and shrinking economic pie. Guy Kawasaki has a good illustration at his blog of how tribes will continue to work in 2009. Guy took a trip to his local shopping mall, The Stanford Shopping Center. Once there he took photos of the tribes at work - almost every shop had Sale signs posted outside or in their display windows offering customers 25, 50, 65, or 70% off their recommended retail prices. At this mall each tribe was acting independently and yet this particular cluster of tribes were acting in concert. You will see more of this in 2009 in your mall and within your company. The standout exception to this awesome display of tribal rule was the Apple Shop. Apple had no discounts and yet it was full of people looking around. Apple is not a tribe it is a clan. Clans are tight knit clusters that affirm discontinuity. |
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