The Cluetrain Manifesto

95 Theses

These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.

But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about "listening to customers." They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.

While many such people already work for companies today, most companies ignore their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happytalk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it.

However, employees are getting hyperlinked even as markets are. Companies need to listen carefully to both. Mostly, they need to get out of the way so intranetworked employees can converse directly with internetworked markets.

Corporate firewalls have kept smart employees in and smart markets out. It's going to cause real pain to tear those walls down. But the result will be a new kind of conversation. And it will be the most exciting conversation business has ever engaged in.

Markets are conversations.

Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.

Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.

Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.

People recognize each other as such from the sound of this voice.

The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy.

In both internetworked markets and among intranetworked employees, people are speaking to each other in a powerful new way.

These networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge.

As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized. Participation in a networked market changes people fundamentally.

People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to commoditized products.

There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone.

What's happening to markets is also happening among employees. A metaphysical construct called "The Company" is the only thing standing between the two.

Corporations do not speak in the same voice as these new networked conversations. To their intended online audiences, companies sound hollow, flat, literally inhuman.

In just a few more years, the current homogenized "voice" of business—the sound of mission statements and brochures—will seem as contrived and artificial as the language of the 18th century French court.

Already, companies that speak in the language of the pitch, the dog-and-pony show, are no longer speaking to anyone.

Companies that assume online markets are the same markets that used to watch their ads on television are kidding themselves.

Companies that don't realize their markets are now networked person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined in conversation are missing their best opportunity.

Companies can now communicate with their markets directly. If they blow it, it could be their last chance.

Companies need to realize their markets are often laughing. At them.

Companies need to lighten up and take themselves less seriously. They need to get a sense of humor.

Getting a sense of humor does not mean putting some jokes on the corporate web site. Rather, it requires big values, a little humility, straight talk, and a genuine point of view.

Companies attempting to "position" themselves need to take a position. Optimally, it should relate to something their market actually cares about.

Bombastic boasts—"We are positioned to become the preeminent provider of XYZ"—do not constitute a position.

Companies need to come down from their Ivory Towers and talk to the people with whom they hope to create relationships.

Public Relations does not relate to the public. Companies are deeply afraid of their markets.

By speaking in language that is distant, uninviting, arrogant, they build walls to keep markets at bay.

Most marketing programs are based on the fear that the market might see what's really going on inside the company.

Elvis said it best: "We can't go on together with suspicious minds."

Brand loyalty is the corporate version of going steady, but the breakup is inevitable—and coming fast. Because they are networked, smart markets are able to renegotiate relationships with blinding speed.

Networked markets can change suppliers overnight. Networked knowledge workers can change employers over lunch. Your own "downsizing initiatives" taught us to ask the question: "Loyalty? What's that?"

Smart markets will find suppliers who speak their own language.

Learning to speak with a human voice is not a parlor trick. It can't be "picked up" at some tony conference.

To speak with a human voice, companies must share the concerns of their communities.

But first, they must belong to a community.

Companies must ask themselves where their corporate cultures end.

If their cultures end before the community begins, they will have no market.

Human communities are based on discourse—on human speech about human concerns.

The community of discourse is the market.

Companies that do not belong to a community of discourse will die.

Companies make a religion of security, but this is largely a red herring. Most are protecting less against competitors than against their own market and workforce.

As with networked markets, people are also talking to each other directly inside the company—and not just about rules and regulations, boardroom directives, bottom lines.

Such conversations are taking place today on corporate intranets. But only when the conditions are right.

Companies typically install intranets top-down to distribute HR policies and other corporate information that workers are doing their best to ignore.

Intranets naturally tend to route around boredom. The best are built bottom-up by engaged individuals cooperating to construct something far more valuable: an intranetworked corporate conversation.

A healthy intranet organizes workers in many meanings of the word. Its effect is more radical than the agenda of any union.

While this scares companies witless, they also depend heavily on open intranets to generate and share critical knowledge. They need to resist the urge to "improve" or control these networked conversations.

When corporate intranets are not constrained by fear and legalistic rules, the type of conversation they encourage sounds remarkably like the conversation of the networked marketplace.

Org charts worked in an older economy where plans could be fully understood from atop steep management pyramids and detailed work orders could be handed down from on high.

Today, the org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchical. Respect for hands-on knowledge wins over respect for abstract authority.

Command-and-control management styles both derive from and reinforce bureaucracy, power tripping and an overall culture of paranoia.

Paranoia kills conversation. That's its point. But lack of open conversation kills companies.

There are two conversations going on. One inside the company. One with the market.

In most cases, neither conversation is going very well. Almost invariably, the cause of failure can be traced to obsolete notions of command and control.

As policy, these notions are poisonous. As tools, they are broken. Command and control are met with hostility by intranetworked knowledge workers and generate distrust in internetworked markets.

These two conversations want to talk to each other. They are speaking the same language. They recognize each other's voices.

Smart companies will get out of the way and help the inevitable to happen sooner.

If willingness to get out of the way is taken as a measure of IQ, then very few companies have yet wised up.

However subliminally at the moment, millions of people now online perceive companies as little more than quaint legal fictions that are actively preventing these conversations from intersecting.

This is suicidal. Markets want to talk to companies.

Sadly, the part of the company a networked market wants to talk to is usually hidden behind a smokescreen of hucksterism, of language that rings false—and often is.

Markets do not want to talk to flacks and hucksters. They want to participate in the conversations going on behind the corporate firewall.

De-cloaking, getting personal: We are those markets. We want to talk to you.

We want access to your corporate information, to your plans and strategies, your best thinking, your genuine knowledge. We will not settle for the 4-color brochure, for web sites chock-a-block with eye candy but lacking any substance.

We're also the workers who make your companies go. We want to talk to customers directly in our own voices, not in platitudes written into a script.

As markets, as workers, both of us are sick to death of getting our information by remote control. Why do we need faceless annual reports and third-hand market research studies to introduce us to each other?

As markets, as workers, we wonder why you're not listening. You seem to be speaking a different language.

The inflated self-important jargon you sling around—in the press, at your conferences—what's that got to do with us?

Maybe you're impressing your investors. Maybe you're impressing Wall Street. You're not impressing us.

If you don't impress us, your investors are going to take a bath. Don't they understand this? If they did, they wouldn't let you talk that way.

Your tired notions of "the market" make our eyes glaze over. We don't recognize ourselves in your projections—perhaps because we know we're already elsewhere.

We like this new marketplace much better. In fact, we are creating it.

You're invited, but it's our world. Take your shoes off at the door. If you want to barter with us, get down off that camel!

We are immune to advertising. Just forget it.

If you want us to talk to you, tell us something. Make it something interesting for a change.

We've got some ideas for you too: some new tools we need, some better service. Stuff we'd be willing to pay for. Got a minute?

You're too busy "doing business" to answer our email? Oh gosh, sorry, gee, we'll come back later. Maybe.

You want us to pay? We want you to pay attention.

We want you to drop your trip, come out of your neurotic self-involvement, join the party.

Don't worry, you can still make money. That is, as long as it's not the only thing on your mind.

Have you noticed that, in itself, money is kind of one-dimensional and boring? What else can we talk about?

Your product broke. Why? We'd like to ask the guy who made it. Your corporate strategy makes no sense. We'd like to have a chat with your CEO. What do you mean she's not in?

We want you to take 50 million of us as seriously as you take one reporter from The Wall Street Journal.

We know some people from your company. They're pretty cool online. Do you have any more like that you're hiding? Can they come out and play?

When we have questions we turn to each other for answers. If you didn't have such a tight rein on "your people" maybe they'd be among the people we'd turn to.

When we're not busy being your "target market," many of us are your people. We'd rather be talking to friends online than watching the clock. That would get your name around better than your entire million dollar web site. But you tell us speaking to the market is Marketing's job.

We'd like it if you got what's going on here. That'd be real nice. But it would be a big mistake to think we're holding our breath.

We have better things to do than worry about whether you'll change in time to get our business. Business is only a part of our lives. It seems to be all of yours. Think about it: who needs whom?

We have real power and we know it. If you don't quite see the light, some other outfit will come along that's more attentive, more interesting, more fun to play with.

Even at its worst, our newfound conversation is more interesting than most trade shows, more entertaining than any TV sitcom, and certainly more true-to-life than the corporate web sites we've been seeing.

Our allegiance is to ourselves—our friends, our new allies and acquaintances, even our sparring partners. Companies that have no part in this world, also have no future.

Companies are spending billions of dollars on Y2K. Why can't they hear this market timebomb ticking? The stakes are even higher.

We're both inside companies and outside them. The boundaries that separate our conversations look like the Berlin Wall today, but they're really just an annoyance. We know they're coming down. We're going to work from both sides to take them down.

To traditional corporations, networked conversations may appear confused, may sound confusing. But we are organizing faster than they are. We have better tools, more new ideas, no rules to slow us down.

We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But we are not waiting.

Showing posts with label hacks. Show all posts

Friday, March 16, 2007

Emergency Analog Backup!

What do you do when the lights go out? Or if you are a high-powered executive and your assistant is out of the office unexpectedly? Success Begins Today has a really good answer:

All the secretaries and office personnel were gone. The district had arranged a one day seminar in Riverside and they all had taken advantage of it. This was an amazing change and many administrators were at a loss without their administrative help. I overheard many conversations such as- “It will have to wait until tomorrow, ____ is gone and I don’t know what’s on the schedule.”

What do you do in a situation like this? Your schedule is turned upside down and normal channels of communication don’t work. Imagine if the power was turned off for hours on end. Your computer is down, your PDA discharged, and all of your common organization tools are inoperative.

What do you do?

The simple answer is the “Five Minute Organizer.” A simple tool for organizing your thoughts, goals and even your life. This simple little device requires no batteries, is totally customizable, and fits neatly in your pocket or purse. You can create one in five minutes and be on your way to organizing your day. With some simple options your desk will be transformed into an organization station. You’ll be able to see your appointments, daily goals and your next actions in one place.

Check it out, I am sure that this idea could be hacked in a hundred ways! What do you think you could do with this:

Check it out, download the form, and then let me know what your clever mind came up with!

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gtd

getting things done

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

To Do Today

Today is Weekly Review day, my one day off from the meatspace job that I get to myself. I will be doing some housekeeping, laundry, and thoroughly going over this past weeks NAs to make sure that everything is being captured properly. I will post on the results later today, so for now I will leave you with the Time article on David Allen from last Saturday and a couple of interesting links.

The Five Secrets to Getting Things Done
Saturday, Mar. 03, 2007 By JEREMY CAPLAN

To spread his productivity gospel, David Allen is writing a third book on how to get things in order. Here are some of his top tips, whether you're an executive or an artist-in-the-making

1 — Mix Business with Pleasure

Most people keep separate lists of things they have to do at home and their professional or school tasks. That's a mistake, Allen says. You're the same person at home and at the office (or school). It's more effective to maintain a unified list of all of your tasks. Keep it on paper, not in your overloaded head. Organize tasks by context rather than according to whether they're professional or personal. In other words, if you have calls to make, whether to work colleagues or to the babysitter or cable guy, tag them in your to-do list as things to do when you've got a few minutes and a phone handy. Next time you're in a cab or waiting room, you'll appreciate only having to look in one place for the calls you have to make, whether they're for work or not.

2 — Step Away from the Stapler

When your schedule is packed with meetings and tasks, it's easy to lose sight of your broader goals and responsibilities. Break away once a week and take stock of the projects you're working on and your long-term objectives, Allen advises. That will ensure that important items on the distant horizon don't fall by the wayside. In Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology, the "weekly review" is the most important element, according to devotees. It's easy to avoid and hard to commit to, but Allen says building it into your routine helps systemize effective planning.

3 — Evaluate Your System

Whether you're a scraps-of-paper person or a Filofax fanatic, chances are you've developed your own way of organizing your calendar, tasks and contacts. Most of us, though, have holes in our organizational buckets. Things routinely fall out. And while your system might be comfortable, it should get a tune-up from time to time. "I thought I was a productive, well-organized person," says Kim Hagerty, CEO of The Hagerty Group Management Group, a specialty insurance company, describing how surprised she felt after a consultation session on David Allen's system. She realized there were many things she had forgotten to plan for, mostly because they hadn't required her immediate attention. The advantage of the GTD system, or others like it, Allen says, is that once you've written everything down and gotten it off your brain, your mind can relax and your imagination can soar.

4 — Ask Yourself: Should This Be Here?

Keep tabs on your working space just as you manage your mental space. "The things that belong are supplies, reference material, decoration and equipment," Allen says. "Everything else is in process." In other words, if random chotchkes are gradually taking over your desk despite being neither functional nor sentimental, neither useful nor amusing, observe that and do something about it. Set your own standards, Allen says, but once you've recognized that something is out of place, do something about it to improve your peace of mind.

5 — Decide On Your Mission

At some point, your tasks and projects have to draw on some larger goal, Allen says. Even if you don't yet know what that is, set aside time to think about it once in a while. So where does he stand on that? Now that he's gotten organization down pat, what's next for the master of productivity? Allen would rather dream than draw up a business plan. "I'm a reluctant entrepreneur," he says. The productivity guru likes to think of himself as a "researcher, educator and an evangelist," who helps people weave order into their complex lives. But because Allen would rather help people gain control of their frazzled lives than figure out new ways to make millions off of his ideas, he's still struggling to decide whether to focus on corporate consulting or the world of self-help. And what's the right scale and scope for The David Allen Company? "This could be a $30 to $60 million business," he says, "but I'm personally not that ambitious."

And here are two links to other GTD-related posts that I found interesting:

77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better

R. Emory Williamson-Lundberg's Whitepaper on GTD Implementation

The whitepaper is long, but loaded with tips and real-life examples of how Emory does GTD.

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getting things done

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Productivity Tools - Notebook Review

I popped into Staples on Friday and picked up a cloth-covered Rollabind Notebook, the 6" x 8.5" size. It comes with 70 pages of fairly heavy-weight paper, 5.5"x8.25", that takes the ink from my Pilot G2 very well. The paper is pre-printed, both sides, with College-ruled lines for notes and is very smooth, so pencil works well too.

Included accessories for the notebook vary in quality. The business card holder has 3 slots for cards and is very cheap and flimsy. The slash-pocket divider is also light-weight, I anticipate that it will tear quickly under use. The ruler place holder and single tabbed divider are of better quality - a heavier, thicker plastic sheet that should hold up to daily use.
Finally we come to the rings that are the heart of the system. Made of white plastic, painted silver, they have some mold flash on the outer edge that restricts the opening and closing of the notebook. Turning individual pages works fine, but when you flip multiple pages or open the notebook to the center they catch. This is a big weakness, I am going to have to file the flash off so the pages will turn more smoothly.

Rating: (of 5)

What will I use it for?

This new notebook will serve as a capture device for the rough drafts of upcoming posts, @Project outlines, and perhaps the home for upcoming Review Checklists. The notebook fits into my "portable office" with no adjustments. To hack this notebook for best use, I have added 3 dividers made from 5"x8" index cards with self-adhesive tabs. I may pick up a sturdier business-card holder designed for one of those name brand systems once the original one fails. It depends on how much I use it.

I will post updates on how daily use comes along.

Related post here.

Technorati Tags: gtd getting things done

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

This is Called Serendipity

I was reviewing the Ultimate GTD Index this morning, and I followed the link to this post ( Shift Happens ). You need to go there and watch the video. Then come back and finish reading.
It's okay, I'll wait.

You may have noticed a button on the right-hand sidebar of To Do or Else, all the way at the bottom, called Blidget Badge. The mission:

Wigetbox widgets make blogging better, smarter and easier.
We Make Widgets Come Alive

Once a widget is on your blog, you can reconfigure it to your heart’s content without going near HTML. Developers can fix bugs and upgrade your widget’s functionality without you having to re-install the HTML code.
We Make Your Blog Smarter

Widgetbox widgets can respond to your blog posts and website content. We call these widgets “Tag Aware”. Here’s some things you can do with it. We’ll be adding more smart blog features in the coming months.
Widget Panels

Widgetbox widget panel lets you drag and drop widgets onto a special panel in your blog. Never deal with widget installation again!

How very interesting. I took a few minutes to build a blidget, you can find it in the upper left sidebar. Check it out. Let me know what you think you can do with this. I will play with it some more, and give an update.

UPDATE: Lawrence Coburn at Sexy Widget posts a review of WidgetBox here:

Widget service provider Widgetbox (site, review) has just launched Blidgets – a tool that lets publishers convert RSS feeds into Flash widgets.

Widgetbox joins SpringWidgets and MuseStorm as providers of Flash RSS widgets, along with start pages like YourMinis and PageFlakes.

Converting your RSS feed into a widget with Widgetbox has a couple of advantages. For example, the Blidget tool makes it easy to add an image to your widget, which can be helpful for branding or presentation purposes. Publishing a widget through Widgetbox also signs you up for Widgetbox’s free stats package which tracks page views by date and page views by domain. Finally, there’s a distribution aspect as well. Publishing with Widgetbox automatically drops you into Widgetbox’s widget gallery, which in my opinion, is the most polished and well presented widget directory out there.

I had no problems finding the Blidget tool, which is located prominently on the Widgetbox home page. One very minor point that I appreciated – although I wasn’t logged in when I launched the tool, it didn’t direct me immediately to the login page. It let me build my widget, and THEN allowed me to login. Little things like this can make a big difference in adoption.

Read the whole thing, then pop over to WidgetBox and check it out.

The Weekly Review

The importance of the weekly review cannot be stressed enough. I have only been on the GTD program for a couple of months, so I am still integrating it into my life and work. I must admit that I did not do my review on Friday, as it was scheduled, and my weekend was a mess, followed by a less-than-stellar Monday. I did my review this morning and have uncovered some weaknesses. What is missing is a checklist, a 'mini-tickler' that exists for me to make sure that nothing fell through the cracks. So I did a little research and this is what I have come up with:

Review Tickler file
Go through Inbox
Pay/schedule Bills
Update Checkbook
File Receipts
File papers and notes
Clean out wallet
Review and Clean hPDA
Calendar Review
Close or forward incomplete items
Sync Gcal and diary
Handle e-mail
Project Review
Close and archive completed projects
Update current and forthcoming work
Is the project still worthwhile?
What is in @Waiting for?
Log ideas for new projects
Update current project list
Next Action review
Is the project still worthwhile
What is being waited on?
Review Someday/Maybe
Review Support/Reference files
Brainstorm Creative ideas

I am feeling much more centered and in control. I am sure that everything has been addressed and logged, and I look forward to a much more productive day.

How do you do the Weekly Review? Was this post helpful? Let's brainstorm-

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

My GTD System

Here is a description of the tools I use for Getting Things Done:

48 Folders for a Tickler File: Numbered 1-31 for the current month, and 1-5 for the first week of the next month, and then January thru December. In the same file are all of my Reference folders for every topic imaginable.

Three-Ring Binder for a Tickler File: I keep this at work for tracking future events.

Three-Ring Binder for Daily Activities: In my capacity as a Sales Consultant I track my customers, appointments, and current sales activity.

Zipper Case: I picked up a nice leather planner that zips closed for $10 at Target. I got tired of printing my Outlook pages and punching them for the planner, so I went out and bought a pre-printed planner that fits inside the planner cover. I pulled the rivets that held the ring-binder in the cover and removed the rings. It is now a mini-briefcase that I use to carry my essentials. I keep a Pilot .5 G2 in the pen loop, and a PaperMate .5 Mega Lead mechanical pencil loose inside. I tuck a few blank 3”x5” cards into the front pocket, along with some business cards. In addition to a pad of 3”x3” Post-Its I keep my calendar and a small notebook in the case.

Yearly Calendar: A 5.5” x 8.5” calendar with a leather cover and stitched spine. I took a razor and cut out the pages from the front that I did not need. Then I glued in a couple of pages that had personal reference information, and a divider tab that I cut down from a manila folder. Because I had removed about 10 sheets there was room for me to clip a handful of 3”x5” cards to the tab without making the cover bulge out.
I only write appointments, my work schedule, and time-specific Next Actions in the calendar. These are all color-coded: green ink for appointments, black ink for the schedule, and red ink for Next Actions. On the top margin of the right-hand page I write an inspirational quote from Jeff Gitomer's Red Book of Selling.

At the back of the book, I cut out the Area Code pages and glued in some more of my own material, including the Bootstrapper's Manifesto for more inspiration. After this were about 30 pages for Notes, so I added a blank sheet for an Index and a self-adhesive tab to mark the Notes section. This is where I put some more Sales Techniques, a list of the 7 Habits, and the GTD workflow process, GTD Natural Planning and so on. As I come across other information that I 'd like to keep handy, I will write it in.

In order to add some more storage space, I made my own accordion pocket and glued it to the inside of the back cover. In here I keep (more) blank 3”x5” cards, a short stack of 3”x3” Post-its, a spare PocketMod, and my business cards.

Capture Notebook: I picked up a 3-pack of 3”x5” notebooks (much cheaper than Moleskines) that I use for capturing information. I added 4 self-adhesive tabs to break the book into sections:

Section 1 is for Next Actions.

Section 2 is for books that I may want to purchase.

Section 3 is for websites to review, software to check out, or any other computer-related information.

Section 4 is for copying down interesting quotes, pictures, or other media that I find interesting.

Section 5 is for Someday/Maybe stuff, and Project notes or Brainstorming ideas.

There is a pocket at the back (like a Moleskine), where I keep blank 3”x5” cards, filled out Project cards, and some of my business cards.

And this is what it looks like, all packed up and ready to go:

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The Cluetrain Manifesto

Friday, March 16, 2007

Emergency Analog Backup!

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

To Do Today

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Productivity Tools - Notebook Review

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

This is Called Serendipity

The Weekly Review

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

My GTD System

The Book of Five Rings

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Productivity Blogs

Merlin Mann Interviews David Allen

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