London…
My old home has been hit by horrific terrorist attacks. Why attack working class Londoners? It’s just so pointless and futile. Our thoughts are with all suffering through this.
Lots on the blogosphere on this one. Here are a few links:
Glad James is OK – remembered his office is in Aldgate East. Waiting to hear about the rest of the gang…
The Community…
Interesting site. I’ve long thought that the workplace needs a complete rethink. I picked this link up through a great email from (forgive their name) Next Generation Consulting. The long and the short of it is a study that looked at Law firms and their success at overworking employees:
Her task force points a finger directly at the profession’s emphasis on ‘total commitment’ as a basis to enter the partner ranks as the key debilitating factor affecting the work environment, attraction and retention of talent and work-family balance within the industry. It found that the profession’s concept of total commitment translates to pushing all non-work obligations aside on a regular basis as a symbol of one’s commitment. The task force concluded that this predominant ethos triggers a series of ‘vicious circles’ in the industry – where solving one difficulty leads to another problem which in turn creates new difficulties.
Sounds so, well, Silicon Valley doesn’t it… (also sounds like most consulting firms…)… Anyway, given we’ve got all this magnificent technology at our disposal I’m convinced employers of choice in the future won’t be those with the best food or offices – but those that free employees to work wherever and however they will be most productive. And those that free employees from the tyranny of nonsensical performance reviews that force-fit performance and focus on vertical career advancement.
Tom Cruise Is…
Nuts… It didn’t take long for a site to appear, but not a moment too soon.
One of the other reasons…
That old age print media is going to continue to struggle is that they are just lousy marketers. Lousy, lousy, lousy. Or, as Bart Simpson would say – "You suck!"
I’ve subscribed to the Wall Street Journal for years – print and online. Suddenly, looking for my daily dose, I’m offline. Seems when I resubscribed back in January I only did it for print – not the combo offer. Why they wouldn’t automatically upgrade both is beyond me – why downgrade an existing subscriber? I thought I was just continuing my subscription…
Having encountered the virtually unintelligible "you can’t come here anymore screen" I called. And waited. And waited. The person I was talking to for ten minutes – who needed all the skills of a CSI Investigator to figure out what was going on then said I needed to speak to the print department. Although my problem was with online access it really wasn’t an online problem. So, over the the print department… We finally sorted this out.
People, get with the program. How about getting rid of your stupid voice response systems and multiple call centers. How about putting the customer first. How about removing complexity. Simplicity saves you money and makes customers happy.
The Rise Of Communities
Been reading an interesting post by Tim Porter on an article by Markoff. Anyway, stumbled across this quote which really reinforces one of the key tenets of my Participatory Communications Workshop – that is, the rise of communities:
"The internet is more than a bonding agent; it is also a bridging agent for creating and sustaining community. Some 84% of internet users, or close to 100 million people, belong to groups that have an online presence. More than half have joined those groups since getting internet access; those who were group members before getting access say their use of the internet has bound them closer to the group. Members of online groups also say the internet increases the chances that they will interact with people outside their social class, racial group or generational cohor." Pew Internet Survey
Tim makes the point: "To borrow a phrase from Hodding Carter and convert it into advice for newspapers: Don’t reflect the community, be the community". Same goes for the PR pros and brand communicators. Don’t just message to the community. Engage in the community.
