More and more brands are looking to anchor themselves in authenticity. This is a strategy that needs to go beyond the brand – in fact, it needs to start in the workplace.

Reading a story on Eileen Fisher in the Style issue of The New Yorker (highly recommend it) they highlight a piece from an employee brochure entitled, “To Be Oursleves”.

The underlying philosophy of our design – no constraints, freedom of expression – extends to the company itself, which is run in a loosely structured manner that allows for an open exchange of ideas. Every employee is encouraged to give input to any area, no matter what their position or expertise. The individual is valued for the total picture of who they are and what they contribute.

Live that, and you’ve got authenticity in org design and in cutlure. Which probably explains why, amongst other things, Eileen Fisher has been such a success.

One of the more challenging aspects of moving to Australia has been adopting to the pace of communications.

In the first few weeks I reported my Blackberry as not working several times, only to discover that the pace of email after hours slows to a crawl or evaporates entirely. As the productivity debate rages in the media down here, I can’t help but smile at how Australia has all but rejected the idea that just because you are tethered to the network you should be ready to work.

Compare this to the US where an email unanswered in minutes draws expressions of concern, confusion and outright outrage.

I’ve been slowing the pace of my email for two simple reasons. First, if it needs to happen real-time it is generally happening in Twitter or Chatter. Second, I’m carving my day up more into working chunks and only looking at email in specific windows. I’m also doing my best to do Saturday’s email and Internet free.

While Australian businesses should look at the velocity of their communications – they are slow by any standard, they don’t need to embrace the connectedness rife in the US. While email tempo isn’t an indicator of productivity focus is.

The question is going to be how do we increase focus and mindfulness in the workplace while maintaining our velocity.

Over the past three weeks I’ve had the chance to meet with a number of CMOs. What’s interesting isn’t that they are all doing social, but rather that what they think they are doing actually isn’t social.

At first glance its all very hip and cool. The campaigns are creative. They’ve got Pininterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Linked-in cooking. rAnd yeah, they are seducing plenty of followers along the way. But here’s the rub. The fact you are doing all this in social media doesn’t mean you are doing social.

The missing ingredient is real engagement. Not just followers following. Not just viewers viewing.

What they aren’t orchestrating is the conversation that engages consumers up front, and gives them a reason to come back. In fact, there is little thought as to why they might come back and what they might do when they get there. There is little look at how information is really being shared. The majority of links are still shared via good old email, for instance. But because most don’t ahve a formal listening program, they don’t know.

And there is little consideration for the real difference between Facebook and Twitter. Where Facebook is a massive walled garden for social expression, Twitter drives the sharing of signals across the open web – it captures moments and is a critical news feed.

Advertising is a shallow art. Social isn’t. The real measure is depth of conversations over time. Bathing in the shallows is easy. It might buy you some transactional sales. But what it won’t do is build you a vibrant community sustained by vibrant conversations.

The trick is to make the switch from the measures of effective transmission to measures of effective participation.

Great to see The Martin Jetpack getting covered on TechCrunch. They are getting some nice props in US media at the moment.

Kiwi companies PowerByProxi and SurveyLab have both attracted solid funding rounds from offshore investors. Both CEOs have put a ton of work into building quality ventures with strong prospects. Great to see Kiwi companies winning like this.

SurveyLab is backed by N08 Ventures of which I am a director.