The Digital Generation Gap

Last week, the Archer Group in Wilmington held a Trust Summit at duPont’s Theater N, featuring presentations by Mitch Joel, Julien Smith and Chris Brogan, some of my favorite people ever.  One of the stories Mitch told keeps coming to mind again and again.  It can best be summed up by saying “There’s no going back, only moving forward.”  As businesses are coming to terms with what digital communications channels are doing to business, we have to keep in mind that we can’t rewind time back to what we’re used to and comfortable with-  times have changed and there’s simply no going back.

To this point, I”m reading a great book by the vastly under-appreciated Seymour Papert entitled The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap.   It seems to me  that the phrase “Digital Generation Gap” describes  the core problem businesses are having these days- the digital generation gap and its disruption of business as usual is causing all sorts of problems and pain.

People are simple creatures at heart.  We are built to try to make our lives as easy and simple as possible.  Occam’s razor rules the day.  We want what we want when we want it.  We respond to positive reinforcement, and stop doing the stuff that’s difficult, unless we see a light at the end of the tunnel, and know the path will yield results.  We can get this wrong from time to time, of course, but the more assurance we have of success up front, the more patient we’re willing to be.

Take the case of the flashing twelve on the VCR, or get used to a new cell phone.  These are tasks that can be done or ignored in large part, if you can use work arounds, but in each case, the benefit of getting the small task done makes other things possible.  Program the time on the VCR or DVD player, and you can record shows when you’re not home.  Get used to the software of your new phone, and you can take advantage of more features.  Children and young people have grown up in a world where they readily adapt to the rules and structure of these new systems, but I would bet most families have some members who have instead decided technology is just too complicated for them and it’s easier to maintain the old ways, until they can no longer avoid it.

My mother in law, for example, wanted CD’s for Christmas, and I bought her an ipod touch instead.  She can have all her music available all the time now, and no need to worry about carrying around all those CD’s, but she still worries that she can somehow break it or otherwise make a mistake.  She teaches classes online, but computers seem complicated, they seem to break for no rational reason (yes, she is on an old Windows machine) and they’ve made her feel silly and dumb, and so she resists doing anything new.  She can see the advantages, but the thought of learning yet another new way to do things doesn’t excite her as much as scare her from trying. Trying to convince businesses to try a social media strategy for building more business feels the same way.  What’s worked in the past feels comfortable, and while they may have gradually adapted to things like email marketing, asking them to try something like Facebook or Twitter, and the whole method of engagement they’ve been using gets turned on its head- it’s scary, and there’s no guarantees that it will be successful for them, regardless of the number of case studies coming out.

We have a whole generation of people in management and decision making authority who see the world around them changing, with no real stability in sight.  They’ve been through the betamax to VCR changes.  They’ve gotten rid of all their old 8-tracks and cassettes and adopted CD’s and maybe even digital music and photography.  But they worry that what’s great today is going to be outmoded or out of fashion tomorrow, just when they finally feel comfortable with what they know and are doing.  And they’re right- things will continue to change.  The flood water is rising, and while you might be waiting for the river to crest and recede, I think we all have to get in a boat and start paddling together, because staying still isn’t the answer- you’ll drown and fall farther behind.

I’ve grown up with computers changing rapidly around me, and my kids are even more used to living in a rapidly evolving world than I am.  They still are more eager to experiment and take risks than I am.  I keep hoping to develop some sort of flow and pattern to my work to become more efficient, but that is coming more and more from adaptation than stagnation.  I need those reminders from time to time that just because I always “do it this way” does not mean there’s not a better and faster way to do it coming up tomorrow.  This sense of constant change is definitely anxiety-provoking, but denial isn’t helping.  Like sharks, we need to keep swimming (and experimenting) to stay alive.

The other part of the Digital Generation Gap that causes problems is the sense of community that grows through hazing.  There aren’t any more sure things and guarantees like there used to be- if you followed the rules, you would get rewarded later on- pain first, profit second. (Seth Godin discusses this brilliantly in Linchpin.)  We want people to do it the way we had to, so it’s hard and they appreciate the journey we had to go through, we tell ourselves.  Yet I never took any of the “pain from the depression” stories my grandparents told very seriously, and their struggle didn’t help me all that much- just because they couldn’t call their neighbors or watch TV, what did that mean to me as a child or young adult?  Somehow if I didn’t use the phone, I would have better moral fiber?  I didn’t believe it then, and I know my kids don’t believe it now when I tell them similar stories about my childhood.

Someone asked me recently if the podcasts we were doing for medical resident education was providing them “cliff notes” to knowledge.  Is it letting them off easy?  Why should it be any easier for them than it was for us?  In the end, I am more concerned that my doctor knows the right thing to do and why than how they learned it, but I also understand there’s a richness of experience that comes not from just reading a review of a book, but actually reading the whole thing.  I think the short cuts, if you want to call them that, are really about making the on-ramps to knowledge and experience easier, so you have time (hopefully) to reflect and gain deeper knowledge once you are engaged with the possibilities.

And as I write those words, I think about how this is basically the model for marketing and advertising.  We try to gain people’s attention and tease them with the prospect of our product or service, to let them see how our offering solves problems or makes their life easier, not more difficult.  We all want short cuts and friendly user experiences, so people can get to the heart of the matter- whether that’s advancing knowledge, buying a product, engaging our experience and expertise for money.  We can’t all be expert at everything, so we look for short cuts and anything that will ease our journey.  No one has to reinvent the wheel from scratch- we start out by sitting on a mountain of knowledge,  and our job is to contribute to that as best we can for our kids.

We may all carry the pain of our hazing- of the problems and experiences that made us the people we are today, but that’s no reason to make sure everyone else has to experience the same thing over and over again, ad infinitum.  We’ll close the digital generation gap in part by remembering how fun it can be to try something new, make mistakes and get on with it.  We learn most by experimenting, and more and more of life requires us to be adaptive rather than stagnant.  It doesn’t always mean it will be cheap.  It doesn’t guarantee success.  There’s risk involved.  But in the end, we learn more by moving forward than standing still, hoping it will stop raining.

(And don’t forget to check out Chip and Dan Heath’s new book about change, called Switch.  One of the best reads so far this year.)

Tags: adaptation, archer group, change, chris brogan, digital generation gap, experimenting, julien smith, linchpin, seth godin, Seymour Papert, six pixels of separation, social media, switch, trust agents

Don’t Underestimate Surprise and Delight as a Strategy

I have been a fan of Seth Godin’s for a long time. I read his blogs, buy his books, and frequently recommend them to friends. (In fact, we celebrated my birthday this year at Max Brenner’s restaurant, in part due to reading about Max in Seth’s books.) So when Seth told readers on his blog that they could get an early copy of his book by making a donation to the Acumen Fund, I eagerly signed up.

I really enjoyed Linchpin, and you can see my earlier reviews here. I would love to sit down with Seth and discuss his Lizard Brain concept further, taking into account the development of the brain as we go from kids to adults and how that process may impact creativity. But despite any nitpicking I might do on neurology, it brought home the point that you have the best chance to succeed when you are involved and engaged in your work.

When I came home today from a client meeting where being engaged and responsive had made a big impact, I was surprised to see a package by my door. Inside was another copy of Linchpin with a note from Seth that read :

“Generosity is a key piece of being an artist. It gives each of us a chance to connect, to make a difference and to do indispensable work. You were generous enough to make a donation to the Acumen Fund, an organization that focuses on trade, not aid, building communities that work because each member contributes more than they get. A few weeks ago, I sent you a preview copy of Linchpin, as promised. Now, in recognition of your generosity, I’m giving you another. I hope you’ll share this one with someone you care about.”

What a lovely surprise! I’m speaking to a group next week, and I’m going to make sure someone in the audience gets this gift, along with the hope they will pay it forward as well in the future.

I know Seth is a fantastic marketer, and this is an additional chance to help the word spread about his book. Since I found myself quoting the book frequently after reading it, I’m doing a pretty good job of that already. But this gives me an additional chance to share Seth’s words with others, and it was a terrific and thoughtful gift to find on my doorstep. It was like finding a handwritten note, that chocolate on the pillowcase, the extra secret surprise than reinforces the concept of getting through the process of giving.

I know I always find the more I give and help others, the more I seem to get in return. The return comes in many forms, but whether it’s volunteering or taking a moment to help a friend, or doing great work with a client, I always seem to end up
feeling that everything I put into a project, I get at least that much, if not more, out on the other side. Even in cases where things don’t work out so well, I always find there’s often a lesson I needed to learn in the process.

The bottom line here is that I’m already a huge Seth fan. He doesn’t need to “re-sell” me, really. I’m already happily playing on his team, so to speak. But this gesture reinforces the message that Seth not only stands behind his work, but he wants to make it easy to share with others who may not be fans (yet) the same way I am. And it’s another lesson to me that these small moments of surprise can be touching- moments of delight that work on many levels, including encouraging me to invest in any of Seth’s future projects. Not because of any “What’s in it for me?” reason, but because he always seems to find a way to surprise and delight me, and I’ve always been thrilled by anything I’ve done on his recommendation. I always learn something from Seth, or am reminded of things that are important that I may have put on the back shelf. So I’ll continue to invest in Seth, because he’s never afraid on investing in his audience and fans.

Tags: acumen fund, delight, fans, linchpin, marketing, seth godin, sharing, surprise

Seth Godin’s Linchpin Review- Part 2

I’ve spent most of my free moments over the weekend reading and contemplating
Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin. I’m about half way through, and it’s becoming clear that one of Seth’s main themes is that the real way to get ahead is to make an emotional investment in your work.

I have always agreed with this principle. Over the years, I’ve had discussions with people managing workers in all walks of life, and the bottom line has been that som people seem easily motivated by extrinsic things, like a promise of a bonus, or money, but there’s another subset of people for whom the external motivators are just not what motivates them to come into work every day- their motivation is more about doing something worth while and making a difference. You can try to add additional motivators onto a task, for example, paying someone a bit more for doing a bit more work, but for some people, the compliment or acknowledgement of a job well done is worth more than the paycheck. It doesn’t mean they’ll work for free, but the value of the work itself is a cornerstone of why they do it in the first place.

What struck me is this hits to the core of how we’ve constructed capitalism. We hear people say things like “I pay them to do a job, not to care or to second guess my decisions- I’m paying you to do what I say”- but it seems to me to take the value people could potentially add to your business is a pretty dangerous position to take long term.

Here’s where it gets interesting to me. I’ve been listening to a bunch of NPR interviews recently, featuring an author , Anne Heller, talking about her book, Ayn Rand and the World She Made. Ayn Rand wrote several famous books, again on the best seller list as conservative bibles, basically spawning a philosophical movement called Objectivism. Her opinions were basically that any government interventions were undue interference. It’s even noted that Alan Greenspan knew and was quite fond of Ayn Rand and her positions.

My dad was a big fan on Ayn Rand, and as an engineer and MIT graduate, was devoted to science and logic almost as a religion unto itself. Whenever I would get emotionally worked up over something, he would say that “crying never made anything better” and left me with the impression that how I felt about something was never really as important as what I thought about it. Thinking and feeling were very separate things. Objectivism, facts and logic – intellectualism- should rule the day. The economics and conservative movement of our Country post World War II could be said to derive from some of Ayn Rand’s power and freedom of the individual over the government interference almost at any cost. Ayn Rand also tolerated very little dissent and demanded loyalty from her followers, saying that if anyone disagreed with her, they weren’t thinking properly- somewhat totalitarian in her own way.

What’s interesting is that it struck me that Seth’s book is the anti-Ayn Rand.

*warning- geeky Star Trek Metaphors ahead *

Where companies and corporations take on a Vulcan-like analysis of cold hard facts and logic, decisions made by data alone, Linchpin puts forth an argument that people respond to other people. People want you to be invested in what you do- to care, to do more than the minimum, to stop phoning it in or taking up space. It’s almost a Romulan view, to extend the Star Trek metaphor.

As I understand the Vulcan/Romulan history, the Vulcans and Romulans have a common history, but split off into two people- one branch devoted to logic and Ayn Rand-like objectivism, while the other group remained passionate and are often characterized as cunning and opportunistic.

While I think the terms “cunning and opportunistic” sound negative, I think Seth would agree that his book encourages everyone to leverage the opportunity to stand out from the pack by doing what has become rare- being caring and passionate about everything you do. This may be a time where we have to put objectivism aside and realize that as much as the logical thing to do seems clear, the illogical or “Predictably Irrational” thing may be the better and more adaptive choice when dealing with people. Even the Star Trek movies acknowledge openly that humans are emotional, irrational and often unpredictable creatures, and this is what makes us special and remarkable as a species.

Let’s take a typical customer service problem.  Customer X calls up and needs a problem handled with their account. The operator knows they are being evaluated and paid based on how they handle the call, but also how long they stay on the phone.  There’s more of an incentive to placate the person, pass it up the chain, or basically get off the phone as quickly as possible rather than thoughtfully deal with the customer’s problem the first time.  After all, if you are on the phone too long, or are too nice to the customers, you don’t meet quota- the way you are doing your job looks like you are costing them more money, on phone time alone, than the money you might save them by handling the problem correctly the first time.

When I worked in one of these call centers during college, I regularly spent whatever time was necessary to solve the problem completely.  I felt better, and I knew I was leaving after a short period of time, so I felt more free to ignore the call time metric.  They weren’t going to raise my summer hourly wage, so really, what did I care?  I could do the job right the first time without any negative consequences, so I willingly broke the rules.  A friend of mine does this at her current job, and while she gets recognized from time to time as having the best calls overheard by headquarters, she also gets equally chastised over her per call time- talking about sending your people mixed messages.

Even when I was tutoring students, a faculty member told me I couldn’t give my students treats because it was against the rules.  However, my kids would turn themselves inside out for me for forty minutes for a tootsie roll at the end of a session, so I said simply- “They’ll have to fire me, then.”  It was never a big deal after that, and she often remarked what a great group I had and how hard they worked for me and how lucky I was.  I knew that it was because we had established a trust and rapport, sweetened with sugar, of course, but everyone benefitted from this deal.

I’ve always been willing to bend the rules when necessary, and particularly when the end result was doing a better and more effective job.  If I ever get fired for that, it’s a risk I’m willing to take, because I know at the heart of it, I’m doing the right thing over the expedient thing, and I’d rather not work for an organization that doesn’t value that principle.

So when Seth talks about Linchpins having this attitude, I certainly don’t need any convincing.  But I also realize it’s going to take a lot to convince the people who think the system looks great on paper that it needs to be different for the real world,where people and feelings and gut reactions play a huge part in decisions and choices on all levels.  The age of Ayn Rand and Objectivism is starting to give way to a world in which feelings and connections are more important than ever before.  The humans are in charge, sitting somewhere on the spectrum between the Vulcans and Romulans, hopefully making a place where everyone will be able to function, even if it makes them all a bit uncomfortable from time to time.

Tags: ayn rand, dan ariely, linchpin, objectivism, predictably irrational, romulans, seth godin, vulcans

First Impressions of Linchpin by Seth Godin

I was one of the lucky early few that signed up by making a donation to the Acumen Fund, to get an advanced copy of Linchpin by  Seth Godin.

Seth has asked people to read it, think about it and give a thoughtful review.  I couldn’t wait to tell you about it until I finished the book- I’ve found myself quoting concepts in the first few chapters to friends  already, so I thought it was time to share.

Seth starts out the book by talking about how the old American dream and template we’ve all been fed is history.  There are tons of people who still believe all you have to do is follow the rules and you’ll get a job where you then follow the rules and get rewarded.  But the bottom line that many folks are finding out is that following the rules has ended up being a sucker’s deal, a bait and switch bargain.  The safety and security of jobs and pensions and retirement at a reasonable age, in reasonable health, where you enjoy a permanent vacation until you die is history, and we just have to accept that.  It sounds harsh, but I think we all know that’s true.

As someone with young kids, I know I have to prepare them for a very different world than the one I grew up in, and  that is both scary and challenging.  They’re going to need flexibility, maintain those qualities of being curious, being creative and innovative problem solvers for the rest of their lives.  With schools still programmed, in many sectors, to produce widgets for giant “work”  machines, how can I counteract this effectively?  Certainly, my kids are growing up exposed to innovative thinkers making their own game every day, but I know I still have to find more opportunities for them to flex these muscles on their own now, so they are willing to do so as they get older as well.

Seth encourages all of us to be creative, to be artists, to become remarkable and indispensable.  I wanted to find an exception to this rule, but I found I can’t.  At first, I thought- well, you know the professions- Doctors, Lawyers- we need those folks to make everything else work- how much real creativity do you have as a physician?  Well, and then I took a closer look at what my husband does every day.  Sure, he’s an OB-GYN, but he’s involved with research, working on projects including looking at fetal growth curves, how they can eventually eliminate prematurity, and other projects that at the heart of them require this creative problem solver mentality.  He has to take everything he knows, figure out the problems that are still there, that cause problems big and small every day, and design research protocols to try to make them better, so each patient coming through his clinic gets the best care possible.  It means getting the doctors and nurses and patients in the practice to consider different schedules, to try new clinics like “birth control before breakfast” and step out of their own comfort zones and potential myopia.  He has to ask people to try to do things differently and make a difference- not just by bringing new people into the world (which is pretty amazing in and of itself) but to be able to do so in a constantly changing environment, with financial pressures, with each patient having their own unique set of problems, and being able to improvise on the fly.  The best doctors do this well, and do become linchpins, not only to their patients, but to their colleagues and institutions where they practice.

I wanted to find some exception to Seth’s rule, being a believer that education and formal college educations are not worthless, but have value beyond memorizing facts. I want to believe we do teach people things in school that matter and its not all about grinding creativity out of people.   But I think becoming a linchpin is not about whether you’ve had any formal training or education in anything- it’s ultimately about taking your cumulative knowledge and experience from every thing you have ever done, and be willing to use all of it, at any time, as tools to solve the next problem.

For example, I started reading Seth Godin and a bunch of books in the “business/management” section of the bookstore, not long after my husband introduced me to Marcus Buckingham and the Strength-based approach to, well, everything.  I rapidly found that all the books in the education and parenting section of the book store, where I frequently spent time, were missing the boat.  The really interesting stuff about managing people, developing them to reach their full potential, and the like were all sitting in the business section.  I realized that running a family is exactly like running a small business, and everything I knew had infinite applications outside of the box one might put them in.  “Pediatric logisitics”- managing kids/people, schedules, activities, performance (grades), camp, and keeping an eye on the larger issues at the same time are all the same skill sets I use in my business, in running Podcamps, in every other aspect of my life as well.

The main point here is this- you have to be a person who strives to make a difference in everything you do.  You have to care.  You need to look out for yourself, but you also can’t afford not to look out for others as well.  You need to be able to use all of your experience, no matter where it’s from, and weave it into a new solution to try and make a change for the better.  There are no more silos.  There are no more boxes.    It’s all about bringing all your resources to bear to try to solve problems big and small, and not being afraid of having a “crazy” idea.  Those crazy ideas in the hands fo the right people, shared with other people who care, mean all sorts of resources can be marshaled and then moving the needle becomes easier than ever.

Thanks, Seth, for the jolt of espresso to my creativity, and for reminding me how important it is to care .  Thanks for the reminder that we have  to be willing to try the “impossible” (which turns out only to be a bit difficult) and can be accomplished if we just try to see the possibilities rather than shut down because it seems risky or scary.

I look forward to the chapters to come.

Tags: creativity, education, linchpin, seth godin, taking risk