Manage To Change

The Evolution of the Book

Change is always difficult.

It can be amusing to look back and consider how the items we are so accustomed to now may have been difficult adjustments for those before us!

Blog Stats 101

I blog to communicate, to learn, to write, and to clarify my thoughts.

Even though increasing traffic isn’t my primary goal, blog statistics have been a fun way to gauge reaction to what I’ve written.

My blog statistics may not be overly impressive (if you want impressive go look at Technorati’s top 100!), but it has been interesting to watch readership and page views increase at a slow and steady rate over time.

Feedburner tells me how many subscribers I have.

Technorati tells me my “rank” as compared to other blogs.

• Rank: 42,427 (502 links from 92 blogs)

StatCounter gives me both a general view of readership (below) and more detailed statistics. 

Currently 60% of my readers are in the US.

I can see from which states, cities, and ISP’s readers have come. I can see my most popular pages, keywords on which people have searched, and visitor activity (which pages they went to, in what order, and on what date).

There are many sites offering to capture statistics on your blogs, these are just a few.

If you’re interested in learning more about blogging and building community online, consider attending SOBCon07.

I’m going and I’m sure it will be an education for all (early registration ends this week).

Bob Sutton: The No Asshole Rule

Bob Sutton is one of my favorite business authors.

Aside from his belief in evidence-based management and the value of his work related to organizational creativity and innovation, I just love this man’s style!

He’s human, readable, insightful, and direct.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with him, he’s a Professor of Management Science and Engineering in the Stanford Engineering School.

Insights from Bob’s latest book, The No Asshole Rule:

What is an asshole?
“… if someone consistently takes actions that leave a trail of victims in their wake, they deserve to be branded as certified assholes.”

Attacks are “personal rather than professional.”

“The difference between how a person treats the powerless versus the powerful is as good a measure of human character as I know.”

How do they impact an organization?
“It takes numerous encounters with positive people to offset the energy and happiness sapped by a single episode with one asshole.”

People “…devoted their energy to protecting themselves, not to helping the company.”

“…when people believe that they work for insensitive jerks, they find ways to get back at them, and stealing is one of those ways.”

“…how many hours…managers devote to “asshole management” or to predicting future legal costs incurred by assholes…”

Then there’s the impact of finger-pointing, risk-adversity, and passive-aggressive behavior that lead to serious issues with innovation and collaboration.

How can you implement a no asshole rule?
Make a policy of respect for the individual public and enforce it.

“Hot shots who alienate colleagues are told to change or leave.”

“…respond immediately if any individual degrades another…”

“…if persistent nastiness from any group is left unchecked, it creates a culture of contempt that infects everyone it touches…”

Assholes multiply. They indirectly encourage people to “kick” those with less power than themselves. If in a hiring position, they tend to replicate themselves.

Be careful, your managers may be assholes: “…even…trivial power advantages can change how people think and act – and usually for the worse.”

Teach people how to fight. “…conflict is constructive when people argue over ideas rather than personality or relationship issues...”

To assess whether you’re the asshole, learn how to deal with environments where they run rampant, and explore the (somewhat limited) virtues of having one around, you’ll have to read the book.

It’s worth it!

Etiquette

There’s email etiquette, phone, interpersonal, cultural, and even blogging etiquette.

How are they the same and how are they different?

Silly Questions

I came home from  California and found a book on my desk.

Do Penguins Have Knees?

My husband bought it for me.

I think he’s tired of answering my silly questions.

By the way, penguins do have knees!

I didn’t know that.

Dear Harvard Business Review

Thank you for your recent requests for me to renew my subscription. As you know, I’ve been a faithful subscriber for many years.

I find your content valuable, interesting, and certainly authoritative.

However, that is no longer enough.

I used to read HBR from cover to cover every month.

But in the past couple of years the amount of information finding its way to me has increased dramatically.

At first, I started to use the article synopses in the back of your issues to select articles of interest to me. I would only read those articles but I still read every word.

As the amount, brevity, and quality of information I received from multiple sources increased still, I found myself picking up my HBR less frequently. When I did, I would skim articles, occasionally reading one if it was immediately applicable to my situation.

As of today, I have not even picked up an issue in almost a year (other than to move it to my overflowing bookcase).  

I must commend you for your move to get your articles and full text online. I appreciate it. However, I rarely feel compelled to visit your site.

The bottom line is that I’m not getting what I need from you.

If you’d like to keep me as a customer, here’s what you need to do. 

Charge me the full subscription price you currently charge me.

Do not send me a print HBR.

Give me unlimited online access to search and read the full text of all HBR articles past and present. 

Enable me to manage my views of your content according to my interests (I need some tools).

Permit me to download a set number of full text article pdf’s during my subscription period (I would be happy with 12).

Charge me, or allow me to upgrade my subscription, if I want more downloads.

You don’t need to worry about cannibalization because I’m leaving.

You aren’t cannibalizing anything. In fact, you might just retain me and attract new subscribers with this model.

Please send me the sign-up email for this service and I will gladly continue to send you my money.

Thank you.
Ann Michael

Respect & Diplomacy

As a child, do you remember being forced to treat adults with respect no matter what?

They didn’t need to deserve it.

They were older. We were younger.

They could be wrong.

They could be jerks.

It didn’t matter.  We had to bite our tongue.

It made no sense to me.

When I was a little older, I got a job at a restaurant.

It was the same.

No matter what, the customer was always right (at least I was getting paid!).

I may have hated being mistreated or unable to speak my mind, but I learned something about diplomacy.

I learned strategies for navigating difficult situations from a disadvantageous position.

I didn’t like it, but it was valuable experience.

I wonder if my kids are learning that lesson.

My Weekend Experiment: Twitter

Twitter is a 140 character public way to answer the question “What are you doing?”

I was hearing about Twitter constantly so I decided to check it out.

I registered.

I invited some friends.

Within an hour someone I didn’t know (but whose blog I read) added me to their list!

I set Twitter to notify me through Google Talk if someone in my network (9 people at the moment) posted anything.

While posting on Twitter is fun, and can be informative (I got several links to interesting articles and blog posts), I’m still on the fence. 

I’m hoping that if I limit the group to people I know, or in whose work or specialty I’m interested, that I might find it useful.

When it comes to Twitter’s impact on blogging, I agree with Scott Karp. Twitter won’t replace blogs, it’s a different kind of communication.

The Wall Street Journal also had something to say:

“These services elicit mixed feelings in the technology-savvy people who have been their early adopters. Fans say they are a good way to keep in touch with busy friends. But some users are starting to feel "too" connected, as they grapple with check-in messages at odd hours, higher cellphone bills and the need to tell acquaintances to stop announcing what they're having for dinner.”

“Twitter's Mr. Dorsey…defended the site's often prosaic content.

“Everyone says Twitter's completely useless, I don't want all this information," he said. "We check in later, and they're complete addicts."”

I’m not so sure addictions are a good thing. Time will tell.

A Quiet Friday

It's a snowy night. 

I'm figuring out how to use Twitter, learning how to frame my pictures, and enjoying a nice warm fire.

It's been a long week.

I'm taking the rest of the night off!

Food For Thought: Balance

What is balance and how does one achieve it?

It seems as though balance (often discussed as an end result) means different things to different people at different points in their lives.

There are those that believe balance (some type of loosely defined harmony or optimization) results when they mix various ingredients (opposites, competing needs, aspirations) in equal parts (50% X + 50% Y).

Other people define balance according to some static formula (25% X + 50% Y + 25% Z).

I find these methods clumsy, limiting, and way too structured!

The proportions change.

The ingredients change.

The desired results change.

The whole process is fluid.

The only constant is you.

But not really - because you’re changing too!