May 2004

Here are a few highlights from the last few weeks on my weblog.

Remixing media

In Darknet: Remixing the Future of Movies, Music and Television , Author JD Lasica is writing his new book and inviting us to write/edit it with him. He explores "the idea that digital technologies are empowering people to create, reuse and reinvent media." In his intro, he says

Feel free to dive in and make all the changes you think are warranted. I've opened this up as a public wiki, rather than a private space. Feel free to link to this main page from your blog, though I'll also ask at this early stage that people not excerpt material or dissect any of the material in detail because we're not at the public discussion point yet.

That's a tough rule to follow, because what he's written already cries out to be excerpted. He presents a fascinating insight into how the power of mass-media is being threatened by the technological power now in the hands of the average consumer. Fascinating stuff.

Visions and values... useful or meaningless?

Mission and values statements, corporate values... do you think they're inspiring or are they just hot air? I've been thinking about this topic a lot recently and its come up several times in my weblog.

I was kicked off by Tony Goodson's posting

I am sick of corporates (and anyone else for that matter) coming out with a set of Values. This values thing will be gone in 10 years time, just another passing fad...Almost every large corporate, good or evil, has a set of Values on its website, which just goes to show how useless values are... We're being led on this guilt trip by a lot of consultants telling us about values. And the best test of people who espouse these values, is to find out how much they live their values and adhere to what they preach

I think that Tony voices the scepticism with which these things are often treated. That's well-deserved if values statements are idealistic fantasies that don't correspond to the practical challenges of working life. So I agree with the comment Robert Paterson made:

Another way of finding the values is to investigate how the organization actually behaves in practice - add this into the behaviour of the CEO and the executive team and you have a reasonably accurate sense of where you work and how things are done.

In this case the real values would look quite different in most organizations from the aspired values - but at least they would reflect reality.

Chris Corrigan's weblog has this excellent commentary on vision in organisations.

I believe that an organization's vision is as messy and apparently incoherent as the organization itself. Ask around in organizations with which you work and see if anyone actually has the vision statement committed to memory. They generally don't. Which isn't to say that individuals don't have a vision. But ask them what their vision for the organization is and maybe what they think the organization's vision is, and start a conversation about the difference between the two...

Vision is a personal thing. In Ojibway culture, one needs to spend a lot of time cultivating a vision. In Ojibway cosmology, humans were given the unique gift to dream and have visions. In fact, human self-fulfillment comes through visioning. It is something which lives deep in the person. When groups of people come together, the vision that motivates them is their own. If that vision connects with others, then you have an organization. If not, then people don't come together to work.

My view? That it's useful to talk about visions and values, as long as this is used to inspire honest conversations and not to try to impose a set of abstract beliefs on people.

Persuasion

Robert Scoble at Microsoft asks

Our culture has taught us that when you want to persuade you should only talk about the strengths of the things you are trying to get people to do, and only talk about the negatives of the things you don't want people to do... But, is this really the best way to persuade someone to do something?

Discussed by me here

Consider this

Make allowances for the quirky translation and reflect on this opinion

The Internet and Internet sites are as factors to measure the freedom in each country. The limitation walls will be broken down by communications. Whoever in individual or any regime that thinks about resistant, the wall will fall down over his own head and not over his peoples!!

Who thinks this? The Vice President of Iran. If you find time to read his weblog, I think you'll be enlightened by the experience. I was.

Brand Narcissism

I couldn't resist requoting Alan Mitchell from Beyond Branding

According to the American Psychiatric Association’s reference bible DSM IV, the narcissistically wounded personality tends to display some or all of the following attributes:

1) a grandiose sense of self-importance;

2) fantasies of unlimited success, power and brilliance;

3) a belief that one is superior, special and unique;

4) a constant seeking for attention and admiration;

5) a preoccupation with how well I am doing and how favourably I am regarded by others.

A personality disorder? Or a brand manager’s job description? You take your pick, because the similarities are striking. After all, 'Look at me! Look at how wonderful and attractive I am!' is the fundamental agenda of advertising, direct marketing, public relations, sponsorship, and so on.

Thanks for reading!