Ride a Google Wave to Success

New technologies are constantly coming out.  Our challenge is figuring out out to leverage them for our success. 
Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

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Google is will be launching a new platform called Wave.  The Google Wave is suppose to leverage social networks to enhance communication.

Check out what one of its founders had to say. 

"Back in early 2004, Google took an interest in a tiny mapping startup called Where 2 Tech, founded by my brother Jens and me. We were excited to join Google and help create what would become Google Maps. But we also started thinking about what might come next for us after maps. As always, Jens came up with the answer: communication. He pointed out that two of the most spectacular successes in digital communication, email and instant messaging, were originally designed in the '60s to imitate analog formats — email mimicked snail mail, and IM mimicked phone calls. Since then, so many different forms of communication had been invented — blogs, wikis, collaborative documents, etc. — and computers and networks had dramatically improved. So Jens proposed a new communications model that presumed all these advances as a starting point; I was immediately sold," explains Lars Rasmussen.

 

What does this mean?
We all have many projects that we are concurrently working on, with many different teams.  Well maybe not so many different teams as much so as multiple projects with the same team.  Imagine being able to brainstorm, day or night, with your team, and to have a track record of the conversations and the evolution of the project.  Your coders can add functional input, your designers can add graphics, your business execs can mold the conversation towards business objectives, and your sales reps or field agents can provide feedback as to what is needed in the field.  Real-time, complete, and full collaboration from anywhere in the world.

Just about every demographic should be getting excited about this new platform.  Business owners and execs can leverage it for business, while kids can chat about their days or work on hobbies, and gamers can play games with their friends. In order to be successful in anything that we do, we need to invest in the people around us.  Google Wave is another way for people investing.

How will Google Wave work?
Google defines a Wave as a new communication project.  You would create a wave and add people to it. Everyone you invite on to your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can all edit directly within the wave, adding replies, comments, images, video, etc…  It's real-time editing, where you will be able to see instantly, what your fellow team members (or wave members) are typing in your wave. Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for long term content -- it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use "playback" to rewind the wave to see how it evolved.

 

How can Google Wave make me more Successful?
Often on Successful Thinkers, people are talking about successful people being continues learners.  Successful people are looking for better ways to accomplish their goals, and need to be able to lean on their community to do that.  A Google Wave will allow you to communicate more effectively with your community and team.   You could even open your wave up to strangers to get some additional expert opinions on your projects.

Some people might even consider creating a wave to discuss marketing strategies.  Imagine starting a wave about a billboard, and with the help of your community, you could end up with a video production on TV for a fraction of the cost of the billboard.  How this would be accomplished, I’m not sure.  But the power of a community and the influence that they have, could bring a great reward your direction.

Once Google Wave becomes live, you can bet we will find a way to integrate it into successful thinkers, so that we can all ride that Wave to Success.

 Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

 

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Success Like Children - Child like Faith

Originally Posted On Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

There are few things that stand out in my mind from year to year. Normally these phrases are short, incomplete sentences that pack a powerful punch behind them. There are 3 words that have just about always stuck with me, “Child like faith.” I’m not going to go in too deep on the philosophy or origin of this simple phrase, but lately it has been on my mind as I’ve been thinking of successful people.

Learn from Everyone
Recently there was a young child, only 8 years old, that was highlighted on TV, newspapers, the radio and internet. Tanner Leuellen calls himself an “Apprentice Creator”, and was published as the next Donald Trump. As an Apprentice Creator, he is learning to create anything, and looking for anyone that will give him an opportunity to learn from them.

We should all strive to have a child like faith. Success comes from trying endlessly, without giving up. Children feed off of the knowledge around them, trying endlessly to make themselves better, celebrating every step of the way.

Listen to Learn
Children are constantly listening to learn. If you watch their faces as as they listen, they are not thinking about anything else, just listening intently. Over time, as we grow up, we start to loose that. When listening to people, we all too often find our thoughts wandering to other things. Or even when our minds are focused on the conversation at hand, we are not listening to learn something, we are looking to interject. Typically we are either defending, looking to contribute, or looking for how we can show our superiority. This defensive, self-centered listening will inhibit success because it stunts our ability to learn and grow.

Believe
Children have no difficulty in accepting the truth of things. They trust their parents, grandparents, older siblings, etc… to guide them and teach them. As they begin to interact with other children, they are looking to learn from their friends. Yet, as we get older we begin to see more and more with a doubting eye – only trusting our own thoughts as dependable. Yet – is it not wiser to trust a more experienced source than ourselves when it is available? Success comes not from our sole ability to improve our lot in life – it comes from our ability to learn from and have faith in the knowledge of those who went before us.

Self-Confidence
Children have the most amazing self-confidence. Every accomplishment, even if it is something they’ve already done, is celebrated joyfully. Watch a young child as they learn to jump, dance, and throw. Every time that they jump or throw, they celebrate this advancement, and celebrate that they are able to repeat these results. They never discourage themselves with negative critiques of their skill level – children are happy to be where they are at and excited about where they will be next.

As adults we start to loose that joy. Children are focused on enjoying life and bettering themselves. They are constantly at everything and everyone to discover new ways to have fun and new skills to learn. Many top level executives are recognizing that success doesn’t just happen. They are hiring executive coaches and learning how to listen to learn. Success is more likely when those in charge value the individuals they’ve collected around themselves – and in turn listen with the purpose of learning from those valued people.

We must not forget to remember that we are continually learning and growing – and that celebrating the small things we do does not mean we do not aspire to bigger things. Don’t discourage yourself – or your team – by only dwelling on what you can not yet do. And be humble enough to recognize that we can, and should try to, learn from anyone and everyone.

Commitment
This morning, someone I admire told me that frequently people don’t commit to fixing tough issues. Often people will give up. Though he was speaking in reference to the rising divorce rate, there is a connection to be made to employees. Many employers think that their employees owe them a debt of servitude. They don’t praise the successes of their employees and over time their employees loose the joy of the job. Commitment slowly dries up, and rather than fixing the problem, they leave. Children, on the other hand, have a completely different attitude. They commit completely and figure that since they will be staying, issues need to be resolved, so that they can go back to having fun.

If you're losing good people, look to their immediate boss. The immediate boss is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he's the reason why people leave. When people leave they take knowledge, experience and contacts with them, straight to the competition.

Managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling (micro-managing), too suspicious, too pushy (unrealistic demands), too critical, or even too absent. These managers forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit - often over a trivial issue.

Parade Your Achievements
Children are happy and parade in their accomplishments, admiring those around them, celebrating their successes as well – without jealousy or false praise. In order to complete the long race to full success, we need to fortify ourselves with each achievement – enjoy each step as it comes. Let each achievement contribute to the successful person you desire yourself to become. No success is too small to smile about!

Like children, we will always need help from others to grow. We must treat others as the valuable assets they are – to encourage them to stay close and continue to be of help. The best way to encourage the loyalty of our employees is to inject fun into the workplace. People who enjoy what they are doing, will go a lot further.

Child Like Success
All of our potential success is anything but assured. It can be easy to ruin and difficult to realize. Yet, children give us such a clear example of achieving success. We must have faith in those around us – namely our employees, colleagues, and advisors. Trust that they have something to teach you – and listen intently for those lessons. When accomplishments are made – celebrate like a child! Resist your self-critical tendencies and do a Happy Dance! Laugh out loud! Smile with pride! And remember that this is just the tip of your iceberg. Let the people around you see your glee at the work of their hands. Get excited at each step – it will encourage the next one. Commit to those around you. Treat them well to encourage their loyalty. Loyal and happy employees will offer you much – but an unappreciated one will never seek your approval (and will not hesitate to leave you in a lurch). Believe in your staff (and let them know that you do) and they will work harder for you. Put your full heart into every task (great or small) you begin – make it worth your time. You can not ace a project if you don’t believe in it’s importance.

In short – you are not likely to succeed as a negative, isolated, & arrogant island… Take a page from a toddler – Listen to Learn, Commit to Your People, and Have Fun!

Originally Posted On Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

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10 Step Advanced Guide to Blogging Your Personal Brand

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup By Josh Shackelford
IT Expediter – Expediting your blog

This is the third post in a series about blogging your personal brand. I’ve written a post for beginners and one for intermediate users. Please review those posts before indulging in this one.

Integrate your social networks
As an advanced user, you better be on social networks. Since everything in social media is considered a list, you’ll want to leverage your blogs success to increase the readership of your other properties. This may include your accounts on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, SlideShare, Upcoming, Delicious, Stumbleupon, Digg, Flickr or FriendFeed. There are thousands more, and you should promote only the top 5-10 that you use the most often. If you include too many, people will completely tune them out and if you include too few, it will seem like you aren’t a power user.

Use either text or graphics to promote these profiles. For icons, check out this icon archive.

Search engine blog optimization
Search engine optimization for your blog is critical for a number of reasons. First, everyone uses search engines to learn about new things. Second, search engine ranking showcases authority. Finally, having individual posts ranking high can help build the brand of your blog. Your goal is to rank number one for your name, as well as your topic. Think about the keywords that reflect your topic and use them throughout your headline, subheadings and body. Use links within your posts to link to other posts you’ve written and try as hard as you can to write good enough content that people will link to it.

Try a few different types of posts
There are many different types of posts you can have on your blog. Experimenting with a variety of posts keeps people guessing and interested in your blog. You could scrape the blogosphere or a traditional news site for an interesting fact or article, then quote it and respond to it in a post. You could also email a few bloggers, asking them all the same question, such as “what is your prediction for 2009, and formulate a blog post around their answers. You could become the aggregator of news for a specific topic and links your five favorite blog posts of the week. A series of posts around a theme, such as this post, tends to work well too.

Allow someone to guest blog
As an advanced blogger, you are given the right and hopefully the authority, to reach out to other bloggers and give them the opportunity to guest post. As your blog becomes more popular, people may just come to you and ask to guest post, but when you are in infancy, you will have to be pro-active. The benefits of a guest post on your blog are that you save time from writing a post, it’s a great way to network with other bloggers and it’s a new voice on your blog.

By the way… I’m looking for a few guest posters right now. It would be a great opportunity for you to showcase your success, and even to promote your business, as I will link to your site and company when posting your blog and profile. Please email me or post a comment, and I’ll get in touch with you.

Interview your favorite blogger
Interviews are fun to watch and are the single best networking tactic I’ve seen. When interviewing people, you need to be able to promise a value in their time. People do not want to give up time, especially successful people, unless you can give them something in return. Check out some of the successful think interviews. You’ll want to interview people who are more successful than you are or that can provide some knowledge in an area where you aren’t an expert. You can do the interviews by either phone, through email or in-person (video). It’s really up to you and depends on your schedules.

Get ranked
A great way to gain visibility for your blog is to get ranked. There are a number of different sites that rank blogs out there, such as the AdAge Power 150, the Junta 42, the Viral Garden’s Top 25 Marketing & Social Media Blogs, the 2009 Bloggers Choice Awards, and the Big List of SEO Blogs. There are tons more, but these are the ones I’m most familiar with in the blogosphere. The purpose of submitting your blog to these lists is that you get added visibility and there’s an opportunity cost if your site isn’t on them.

Form content partnerships
If you don’t have partnerships with other websites, you are really missing out because your content will be isolated in one specific area. Every time I post, it ends up on multiple sites. I’m not yet on with any really big dogs, but this takes time. Forming these relationships will take a long time, but will give my blog more credibility and my posts more movement. Just like submitting byline articles to magazines, you want to start small and work your way up. Research your topic area to find websites that might want to syndicate your blog and reach out to them accordingly.

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup By Josh Shackelford

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Expediting IT Projects – Successful IT Expedition

Expediting IT Projects – Successful IT Expedition
Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup By Josh Shackelford

I guess it is time to finally get down to some of the nitty-gritty. Actually, with this being the first post about true expediting, it will be more of an overview. How do you expedite IT projects…?… We all have tons of projects on our plates and receive pressure from all departments, demanding that their projects have priority. Each manager, executive, and director wants to have their projects elevated to the top of the list. They all believe that their projects are the most important and need to be done yesterday.

Every project is important and it is vital that you treat each director with respect, and make sure that they feel important. I’m going to focus on a few of the most frequently requested projects. I almost hate giving away some of these tips, but it will make projects run more smoothly as they come in.

Web Design
With today’s economic downturn, everyone is looking for new ways to revitalize their companies. Many companies are asking for their sites to be overhauled or at least to put a new face on their existing site. The first step is to make sure that the client, whether internal or external, knows what they are trying to achieve, and who the target audience is. From here, I often direct people to look at Template Monster, to get design ideas. While many IT departments and companies don’t like to share sites like this (because other people will de-value the service) it is a great starting point. This site will help put your design projects on the right track. Countless hours, or even weeks will be saved, by starting with what the person likes. If they want to purchase one of these templates outright, then go for it, but they will be back when they are ready to take their company to the next level.

Web Applications
Web applications can take on a life of their own. You really need to watch out for scope creep. The most important time saving advise I can give, is REASEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH. Many people feel that research is a waste of time, as they try to push forward with a project, before researching to see what already exists. Most things have been done before, just not in a way that will integrate or meet the current business model needs. However, it is important to start with this research to save time by starting with, or adding on to, a module that has already been written. There is nothing more frustrating than to realize weeks into a project that you have succeeded in reinventing the proverbial wheel. Do not re-invent the wheel. Do not try to sell someone else’s work as your own. Let your executives, and clients, know that they can save time (and money) by purchasing something that has already been written. You will gain their esteem & trust in knowing that you have their best interest in mind.

Define the goal. After researching to see what already exists, be sure to re-define the goal. After some research, you will have more questions, and possibly more options. You will need to have another conversation about some of the options that exist, and the arguments for and against the use of them. From here you will have a much clearer picture of what you are trying to achieve. It does not matter how pretty something is, if it doesn’t work. Nor does it matter if it functions the way that was requested, if it does not meet the business needs. You will speed up any project, by first recognizing what exists, and redefining your goals.

Reporting / Dashboards
After a new project has been completed, requests will begin to flow in as to why things aren’t working, or how can they measure their success. Every platform has multiple ways to build reports and dashboards. Start off by reviewing your options, and evaluating the best engine. I have found that the majority of people will be most satisfied with custom reporting modules, that are tied in for real time reporting. While others are okay looking at yesterday’s data. Again, you need to start off by evaluating what type of reports have been created in the past, and what you are trying to achieve with your dashboard. Some of the more common business dashboards are written within the existing applications report writer, such as SQL, and Crystal Reports. The biggest time sink in reporting, is spending time calculating and pulling data that is not needed. Some of these “nice to have’s” will eat up precious time, and lead to a report that does not tell you anything that you did not already know. You can spend a lot of time building a report to tell you that you are losing money, but unless you can identify where you are losing money, the report is useless. The most valuable dashboards are clickable, allowing an endless number of drill downs. This detail is what creates the business value, so before you begin, find out what the director wants to know. Most of the time they are looking to make changes within their corporation or business model, and need to evaluate where to make the changes.

Workflow Automation
Workflow automation doesn’t come up too often, as many companies have already become very efficient. I think that most decision makers already realize that their most costly asset is labor and have already made steps to relieve some of this burden. Though, there are still many things that can be made to run more smoothly. Most automation has to do with moving data, whether in paper form, or digital form. Many companies still pay someone to push data around. Before an automation project is started, a clear definition of what is trying to be achieved, needs to be outlined. A company could invest many hours or months with large sums of money being dumped into automating a simple task, later to find out that it will take them 2 years to recoup the cost they spent on the projects versus what they would have paid a laborer. Where will the company be 2 years from now? Before investing this money, the goals and the return need to be clearly defined, so that everyone knows what they are getting into and everyone knows what the results will be.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
I’ve been getting a lot more requests for Search Engine Optimization. Not always in these words… well actually the request is more like “can you make it so that I show up at the top of Google?”. I think that most people believe that I can just wave a magic wand, and they will appear at the top. I wish this was the case, or even if I could fill out one form, click submit, and magic… Unfortunately, this is not the case. Before starting down the road of SEO, be sure to outline all of the steps that you are going to take. Be sure to advise them that this is not a quick process, and that it will be an ongoing process. It is easier, and much faster to move down in rank than up. Once the work has been completed, it needs to be maintained just to stay on the first page. While some projects can begin without having the complete project outline, this is not one of them. You will lose a lot of time if you do not first outline EVERY step of the process. You need to be sure to clearly define your goals.

Online Marketing
Social networking has become a huge piece of online marketing. This is the most recent craze, and has shown to be very successful. Included in this area is Pay Per Click, Newsletters, Banner Ads, Press Releases, etc. You will need to utilize a combination of these marketing strategies to be successful. In order to take full advantage of these resources you need to be sure to outline and set your goals before selecting your arsenal of marketing strategies. Each one of these strategies has its own strengths and weaknesses, so before you end up losing time in building a campaign that isn’t going to make fiscal sense, you need to build a game plan and outline your goals. Keep in mind that you aren’t just doing a projects for the sake of doing it, but that the company has real goals that it wants to achieve.

Updates
Be sure to get regular updates from your team, whether your using a project management application, regular SCRUM updates, or even just simple emails. Be sure to stay in constant contact with your team. Just as important, you need to give updates to your requesting party, whether an outside client, or internal manager or director.

Main Concept
Hopefully you caught on that the running theme is being goal oriented. It is important that the goals are outlined from the beginning – and reassessed as needed. Not just the technical goals or the deliverables of the projects, but the business goals. Most IT departments, or even companies, lack this key initiative. They merely build what the client asks for, without understanding the business model or corporate goal. While this is what some clients want, these are not the type of people to work with. If the other departments are asking for things to be done, without explaining the goals, the company will never reach their goals, and everything will always be someone else’s fault.

Goal Oriented
Expediting IT projects is all about goals. When asked to start a project – ask what the end goal is. Most projects are killed or take too long because the project goes in the wrong direction and work has to be redone, or time is delayed trying to steer the project in a different direction. The key is all about defining and measuring your goals for success.

What are some of the techniques that you use to expedite projects? Please leave comments below.

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup By Josh Shackelford

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