Collective Wisdom in Trouble?

Where do you go for information?

Years ago, when I was managing a technical group, I discovered that when the technicians ran into a problem, they typed a question into their browser and got the answers.

I was amazed.  The tool they used was Google.  

I had never heard of it.  It could do more than the standard browsers of the day.  It seemed to have both an understanding of what was being asked and a vast storehouse of intelligence on which to draw for the answers.

Today, we have grown very comfortable with devices answering our questions.  I have a grandson who likes to argue with Siri.

Perhaps in addition to having a connection with the collective wisdom of the ages, we may have discovered a way to solve that age-old problem of the youngest child not having a younger sibling to boss around.  

Screen capture of Wiki.org site.

But before we take our instantaneous access to information for granted, consider this.  Wikipedia, that experiment in self-correcting collective wisdom used by millions each day, is in need of support.

How can that be, you ask?

It's true.  With over 4 million articles in English, the encyclopedia that is editable by anyone is making a strong plea for funding.

I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that a non-profit organization would be making a plea for donations, but it seems odd that with such fully optimized SEO rankings, the organization has trouble generating support.  

Ads might help, but how would we feel to have ads blinking and popping up in our faces when we look for answers to life's most challenging questions?

Perhaps the experiment is not working.  What does that say about how important or valuable Wikipedia's content is to its audience, to its users?

But wait, let's not jump to conclusions.  

As it turns out, Wikipedia.org has done this before.  The vision of the company is to stay independent.  That means, not to accept ad revenue, soliciting support from users instead.

There are basically two types of users involved, those that go to get information and those who go there to edit, correct, add or create content, in the hope of improving on what was put there before.

In other words, the answer to that question we dropped on Google may be forever changing, and that's the nature of the internet.  It is always in flux.

So, how reliable is it as a source of wisdom, collective, historical or otherwise?

Buyer (or viewer) beware.  There are no guarantees that if you pay for information it is any more accurate than free information, so improving the speed to answer may not be as valuable as one might think.  The top "answers" may just be the ones that pay to be found.

That brings us back to the dilemma for Wikipedia.  

Is the experiment working?  

Well, if we count the number of hits as an indicator of success, it is spot on, but if we look at the impact on our intelligence, I am not so sure.

If we all stop trying to learn things and rely on the collective wisdom of the editors on Wikipedia, eventually there will be fewer and fewer editors.  The collective will shrink, and so will the chances that someone will catch and correct an error.

This is a diminishing returns model.

Add to the mix the possibility that someone might set out to deceive or mislead, and the whole house of cards can fall down.

So, is Wikipedia worth saving?

You be the judge.  If you rely on it, you might just want to support it and hope everyone else does too, or you may find the collective is not much wiser than you.

What are your thoughts?  

How to Unleash Success by Unfocusing (A Greedy Example)

One of the principles of DIY Marketing is this: Paint your mural without a frame.

For most of us, our talents, abilities, hobbies and passions could fill a wall.  What we tend to do, though is put a frame around that part of the picture that we are either most comfortable with or have had prior success with.  A resume or CV is like that frame.  At best, it contains the work-related examples of our talent, not all of it.

If we step back and look at the whole picture, what do we see?  

It may be more like a collage for some while others may see the Crayola nightmare of a kid's room.  In either case, there are strokes of genius in those scribbles if we know how to use them.  The scenes don't have to make sense together to be valuable, and it is important to think of the overall picture as a work-in-progress rather than a finished work.

One example of how to unleash success by looking away from the point of focus is Jeanne Rollins' Greedy Gracie.

Jeanne has a huge amount of energy and passion for what she does and it shows.  When you meet her, she is bubbly and excited, eager to talk about giving.  Her dream is to expand the conversation about giving to the whole world, and I believe she will do it.

What's the big deal about giving?

Well, that's the thing that intrigued me.  Jeanne doesn't just talk about giving; she tells us that some of us are greedy about it, doing all the good ourselves and shutting others out of the fun of giving.

When Jeanne started talking about this, she developed a whole vocabulary of terms and catch phrases that were designed to create interest.  Being a Greedy Giver is one of them.  But people found it hard to understand them and remember them.  They wanted examples to make these ideas "sticky".

As a family therapist, Jeanne couldn't tell stories about real people, and she knew people wouldn't value generalities, facts and figures, so she had to ditch the frame and look at the whole picture.

What she came up with was a character, Gracie, a lovable, giving character drawn from Jeanne's own experiences as a greedy giver.

Now, this is the part that takes a great idea and unleashes it.  Jeanne needed Gracie to come to life, so she teamed up with Kathleen Jordan, the artistic talent that was missing from Jeanne's wall.

The musical

Kathy and Jeanne working together became a force to be reckoned with, and in less than a year, the duo have created a world that people can understand and a language that is changing behavior in a truly fun way.

You can check it out on GreedyGracie.com or Facebook and most likely in a card store near you.  There is also a musical!

What is the secret?

The cliche of thinking outside the box doesn't begin to explain how we can trust our hidden talents, but removing the frame from the wall might be a better way to look at it.  That's the first step, opening us up to possibilities that may seem too small to be practical.

What Jeanne did, though, was go one step further down that road of possibilities, and on that road she found Kathy.  Joining two murals together makes a bigger and more interesting picture.

Oh, and it also creates new small corners of possibility that may be the roads they take in the future.

Good luck, ladies.  You're on a roll.

Shut Up and Say Something (or How Do You Know When They Get It?)

One of the biggest challenges we all have in telling our business or personal story is to know when to stop talking.

[Pause]

In written form, it is hard to represent that very important moment of silence that helps the reader absorb what is being said.

[Longer Pause]

What we tend to do, instead is find a way to repeat or supplement the message. 

[Short Pause] 

In other words, we give examples, or we digress. 

[Very Short Pause] 

But when we get together with friends and share our stories, we stop talking when we see the other person's expression change.  And that change tells us if they get it or not.

[Think about that for a moment] 

In the digital age, we have become crazed about trying to determine if someone is getting the message.  We ask people to Like us and Tweet us and reply to surveys, fill out forms.  Is any of that effective?

In the end, people get the message when they take action.  If they buy the product, make an appointment, call your office, come up and talk to you after your talk, or make a referral you know they get it.

So, what's the message in all this?

First, we need to give enough information to capture the attention and interest of the receiver.

Then, we need to shut up and listen. 

That pause says something very important - You care what they have to say. 

Since it is much easier to do that in person, then offer to do that, or at least make the call. 

 [Pause]

So, what do you think?

Take Control of your Website using Squarespace

I am an adapter.   

When I discover a tool, I look for all the things I can do with it.  If I like a particular feature that I want to use, I challenge myself to learn what it can do, and then seek out opportunities to use it.

There is a danger in that.  To a hammer, the screw looks like a nail, so in adapting a technology or tool to a task, I need to be aware of the probability that there are other tools out there that might do the job better.

So, to be an effective adapter, one needs to be willing to change. 

That's what led me to switch from building my websites with HTML and CSS templates to using Squarespace.

Squarespace 6, the latest release of the website builder, doesn't look like a powerful tool, but that's the beauty of it.

The designers had one thing in mind when they developed this program, the user experience, and that makes the job of working with a client so much easier for the web designer, process developer, or business consultant, all of whom can benefit from the beauty and simplicity of this approach.

Creating a Squarespace space couldn't be easier.  

When you click on the Get Started button, you are invited to select a template, start a free trial (14 days) and then to get a free domain. 

This is truly designed for the beginner, but don't think that means there are limits to what you can do.  The Squarespace environment is the kind of tool adapters like me love.

It is highly visual.

The entire process of building your own site unfolds as a story in pictures and videos, and it doesn't take long before you begin to see your site take shape.

It is totally flexible.

After working in a template for a while, you might want to see what your site would look like if you switched to a different one.  Squarespace lets you preview your content in another design, so you can try before you switch.  And if you do switch and wish you hadn't, you can switch back again.

But the flexibility goes beyond switching templates.  The heart of the program is the content manager, which lets you add a variety of blocks, from text to images to videos to just about anything you can create from HTML, if you choose to build your own.

It adapts to you. 

Squarespace manages the conversion of your website content to fit beautifully on any device, so you don;t have to worry about your images and text being visible on that smartphone or tablet. 

It lets you take control. 

The biggest complaint I hear from my clients when we talk about their websites is the amount of time it takes to get their web developer to make a change.  I am a firm believer in handing over control to the client, and Squarespace is the type of environment that transforms the process of training and coaching the client to be the driver, rather than a passenger on the bus.  

That doesn't mean web developers are out of business.  It means the business of developing websites has become much more collaborative.   

It allows you to grow. 

With Squarespace, everyone from bloggers to business professionals can decide how involved they want to be in managing their own sites.  Squarespace lets you identify contributors and assign permissions to them, so you can adapt your site to your workflow.  With form designing capability, integrated social network sharing and ecommerce, the potential for creating a customer experience that fits your style and vision is limited only by your imagination.

Why tell you all this? 

I'm an adapter and an adopter.  I have discovered a tool that helps me offer more to my clients by giving them control of their own websites.  Surprisingly, those who have the least amount of time find that control liberating.  They no longer feel trapped, and their designers, developers, and contributors are more productive.

The world of work is becoming much more collaborative and mobile.  Do-it-yourself doesn't mean doing all the work  It means taking control.  I have found it much more profitable and rewarding to show my clients how to do that and save time and money in the process.