Category: Life

No matter where you are in your career, you are bound to come into contact with office politics. Like all kinds of politics, however, sometimes it works in your favour, other times it can tear your heart out.

Early in my career I got caught in some office politics and suffered badly from it. But, it did not kill me … in fact, it made me a whole lot wiser. But really, I would have preferred to know a little about what to expect … so I have put together a few tips that you can share around the office (this is important, see tip #3).

1. Dress for your NEXT job. Remember that management are always looking out for the leaders … and while the quality of your work matters, you need to register on the radar of those who make decisions. One of the easiest ways of doing this is to dress-to-impress. (Of course, sometimes this means wearing black jeans or fancy custom shoes.)

2. Listen more than you speak. In the world where politics rules (ie the workplace), you will be judged by what you say. You need to be careful to listen to the conversations around you before you jump into them.

3. Spot the players. In every offers there are a number of people who do things behind the scenes. Some "make things happen", others "know the secrets". There are the "gatekeepers" and there are the "toxic talkers". There are also the great "career vortexes". Learn who is who in your office — each will have a role in your success and your failures.

4. Make someone look good. If you can find a way to make someone look good, then their success will rub off on you. Now you do need to be careful that you don’t simply become fodder for the career vortexes who will take all your information and goodwill and pass it off as their own. But they can help you at least a little if you can stand it.

5. Share the good stuff and take the blame. If you are getting rave reviews, then it is likely that you had some form of help. By including others in your success you will build stronger networks while also demonstrating that you understand the value of teamwork. Also, if something has gone wrong (and it is your fault), put your hand up. You will be found out eventually.

6. Visit desks. It is easy to send emails or instant messages. It is even easy to pick up the phone. But if you can find a way to make a visit (even for no reason other than to say hello) to someone’s desk they will soon see that you dont just want something for nothing.

I am sure there are plenty of other tips, but these are proven to work. Have a good day at work!

When we think over something — from our past or present — we tend to feel like we are looking with clarity. But are we? Or are we just believing our new story about an old situation?

This is my latest post over at MarketingProfs and it looks at some of the changes that I have seen in the publishing industry over the last twenty years. Are we in a better position because of them? Will the current changes underway with social media really make a difference? Perhaps it is time to Re-think our thinking.

For years I have been asked by my family and friends, "what do you do"? When you are immersed in a role or a project it can easily become your "world". And increasingly, as my work became more globally focused and international in flavour, my day-to-day working life became more disconnected from my family’s world.

The daily emails, conference calls, uploads and downloads that are the substance of my day were anathema to members of my family who work in more traditional roles. And the outputs of my work, from documents and presentations to deal-making and presenting, the world of the knowledge worker is very strange (regardless of whether you are a marketer, salesperson, designer or IT architect). This has accelerated significantly with my personal adoption of social networking tools such as blogs, Flickr, Facebook and virtual worlds.

And while all this allows me to stay in contact with my virtual teams and wider communities it also provides yet another way of alienating my family and friends. The presentation below, by IBM Metaverse Evangelist, Roo Reynolds, helps answer the question "what do you do?". Now all I need to do is get my friends and family to check out my blog. Hmmm … now that could be a challenge!

Can’t believe this site is for real.

Readers of this blog will know that I see chaos as a fertile source of creativity — this blog is not called Servant of Chaos for nothing. But chaos also engenders something else — change — for without change there can be no chaos.  Most recently I have been caught in multiple waves of change and chaos. The first was predicted and planned — The Age of Conversation was a project that I willingly and knowingly activated. Neither Drew nor I knew where it would take us (and we still don’t) — and if you have not purchased a copy, please do so here.
The second wave occurred when I sold my house and had to find a new place to live. There were a few dramas (as there were bound to be) — they say that moving house is one of the most stressful things that you can do. The other most stressful thing you can do is to change jobs.
As the Age of Conversation was starting to gain momentum and as I was in the middle of buying/selling and moving homes, I also began considering a change in career.
It was far from an easy decision for me to make. Working in an agency means that you develop very close ties with your colleagues, a passion and interest in the projects that you work on, and more often than not, a sometimes obsessive connection to the style and manner of working that has proven professionally successful. I was provided significant challenges and responsibilities, travelled the world, and built a team that were truly innovative, driven and creative … changing jobs meant leaving all this behind.
Two weeks ago I started a new journey — on the client side. I am working with the market and technology leader, SAP, in the Education Division for the Americas. I have joined the company at an exciting time and have been pleasantly surprised to see a robust interest and engagement with social media across the company. One of the interesting things that is running at present is a global survey on social media trends, hosted by Shel Israel. There are some very interesting responses including Kris Hoet, BL Ochman, Brian Reich, Karl Long, Douglas Karr .. and you can even “roll your own”.
The thing that I learned, or in fact, re-learned in all this, is that you cannot control chaos … you can only ride it. You may be able to start it, but you won’t know where it will lead you. With thanks to Robert Hruzek for starting the “what I learned from …” topic.

Blogged with Flock

I have been watching a show on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) called Carbon Cops where a team come into your house and assess how much carbon your household generates per year. And then, in reality TV makover style, they help you make the changes that will bring you down to earth (often with a thud).

It is quite amazing, but the average Australian household generates about 14 tonnes of carbon per year. That sounds like a lot (and it is), but some episodes have shown that the use of old 4WD vehicles can, in some instances, exceed this in isolation. Plane travel is another large polluter, with a massive amount of carbon generated by frequent flyers (especially those flying internationally).

Obviously those with jobs requiring travel have no way of reducing their carbon footprint without resorting to buying carbon credits in one form or other. Many Australian energy companies now have significant green power options allowing you to choose to draw your power from renewable energy sources … so this is a start. But one of the most interesting aspects of the Carbon Cops show is the energy monitors that they use to show households how much energy is being used at any point in time.

This funky looking model called the ecoMeter is made by a company called Ampy and it looks just like the model used in the show. As your energy consumption increases the lights across the bottom increase. Four solid squares and the colour changes from green to RED. What this allows you to do is to monitor your actual behaviour and to take steps to change it (isn’t this a marketer’s dream?). I have fired off an email to the Ampy folks to find out how much these babies cost … and while I am worried about my actual usage — I am sure there are plenty of steps that can be taken to bring it down — I just need to KNOW and understand my own pattern of usage.

The challenge will come if the cost is significant. One would think that devices like this, together with water tanks, would be a great way of spending some of the Australian Government’s massive budget surplus. In fact, it would be great if it was mandated that all new houses had to be fitted with similar devices (I am sure there are plenty of other good ideas around this).

Oh, and if you want to see how much carbon YOU create per year. Take a look at this calculator. And be afraid. And ashamed. I was.

Tags: CarbonFootprint, Carbon Cops, Ampy, ecoMeter

Actually, I think this is a view OF the porch. That’s right … this is the new place right before the chaos hit. It is unlikely that it will ever look as neat and as tidy again.

Well, it has been a little longer than eight days … and looks like it may be a few more until the blog gets back to normal. You see, moving house and moving phone lines got a whole lot more complicated on the day. With the truck packed and the old place cleaned out, we rang the real estate agent to let them know we would be around to pick up the keys. "Oh no, you can’t have the keys … the house didn’t settle today". Was that a fire alarm or just bells going off in my head?

A couple more hours, some rain, frantic phone calls all over the country and yet more cleaning … and we were finally given the go ahead to move in under license.

Now after a couple of weeks of unpacking, we are almost box free.

Unfortunately we also moved into a new telephone exchange area which has meant quite a bit of Internet-related drama. First up I was informed by my ISP that there was NO ADSL available on my new line. After a short rant, I found out that the line could be upgraded but would take 6-8 weeks.

Totally unimpressed I rang Telstra, Australia’s leading telecommunications company and owner of the vast majority of the fixed lines in the country. By now I was not mucking around — I wanted cable. There was no cable anywhere near my house, there was no ADSL capable lines, no plans for upgrading … and no wireless options that would not require a second mortgage. Things weren’t looking good. (On the plus side, the broadband consultant that I spoke to was excellent.)

I rang my ISP back and requested the phone line upgrade. Six to eight weeks it is … in the meantime I am living a dial-up existence. It is slow going, unreliable and ties up the only phone line in the house. There is more to this story and I will share it with you over the next couple of days (it will take that long to upload).

In the meantime, my BrandingWire buddies launched into the latest topic — car dealers. From a quick (but slow) scan of the blogosphere it seems that this topic has hit a nerve. My own post was interrupted with moving dramas (even though I thought I was well prepared — I was obviously mistaken), but it will be up in the next couple of days.

For now, I am taking in the view from the porch and catching up on some reading. The offline kind. And checking out Phil Gerbyshack’s favourite books on Shelfari. Now, if only they would allow Lulu.com books to be added I would put up the Age of Conversation.

It has been a big week of chaos here (what’s new?).

But the most chaos has been generated by cleaning up. How? Well, I am moving house and it is taking ages to pack boxes, sort through old, outdated and unwanted items and to sell a heap of stuff on eBay!

Of course, moving house also means moving phone lines. And technology being what it is … means that I will be offline for about 8 days while the phones are connected. This also means no access to email — except for a desperate dash to the local Internet cafe.

Hmmm … could be a whole new world by the time I get back online.

It is time for a little confession … I have been hiding a small secret from you all. It is only so very small, but it means a great deal to me, and it has been a very enjoyable diversion.

For the last month or so I have been digging around in YouTube and posting my findings on another blog. It has been fantastic fun … there are literally thousands of videos of songs and performances that I have never seen. And when I find something that I love, or loved years ago, I write it up — add a small story to the song and then let the music speak for itself. In a way it is a sort of antidote to the sense of loss that comes with owning an iPod — as I can now, no longer, proudly peruse my CD collection, this is the next best thing.

Why am I sharing it with you? It is like Mark Pesce says:

We are each, in our own ways, experts on something. The great among us might have expertise across several domains, but every one of us has a passion, a hobby, a predilection, into which we pour tens of thousands of hours of (generally) unpaid work. These passions define us to our peers, far more than any simple explanation of what we do to earn a living.

So here is a little bit more to explain myself. Enjoy (oh, and more to come!).