Too Connected For Our Own Good?
Around the world, we’re all becoming ‘connected’ 24 hours a day. We’re tweeting, texting, emailing, Facebooking, and generally accessing and accessible from the moment we wake up (sometimes even moments before), until after we’ve switched off the light and are about to drift off to sleep in bed. China has 500million internet users; Brazil had 210 million mobile phone subscribers in August 2011, for a population of 195 million people; almost 300 billion emails are sent every day worldwide (although 90% of these are SPAM which we need to filter in order to get to the ‘real stuff’).
Research by German IT association Bitkom found that 88% of German workers are reachable for clients, colleagues and bosses outside business hours, compared with 73% only two years ago.
On the one hand, we can’t remember how we survived before we had all this connectivity and information at our fingertips. But on the other hand, we’re struggling more than ever to put boundaries on our activities and just ‘be present’ with our family, friends, and even our work tasks. Whilst a degree of multi-tasking is a necessary human function, we struggle to perform to peak efficiency during our ‘normal work hours’, and then continue to have work bearing down on us in the evenings and on weekends when we should be relaxing and recharging.
Neuroscientists like Dr. Gary Small are confirming what we probably sub-consciously already know – multitaskers make more errors than people who focus on one task at a time.
Many of us escalate from multitasking to partial continuous attention: we’re constantly scanning the environment for the next exciting bit of information — the next text message, IM, email, or even land-line phone call. That next ping or buzz or ring interrupts our focus and charges up the dopamine reward system as we anticipate something new and more exciting than the task at hand.
When paying partial continuous attention, people may place their brains in a heightened state of stress. They no longer have time to reflect, contemplate or make thoughtful decisions. Instead, they exist in a state of constant tension — on alert for a new contact or item of news or information at any moment. And, once people get used to it, they tend to thrive on the perpetual connectivity. It becomes irresistible.
If we’re going to perform to our best, we’ve got to seriously reconsider the ways in which we work (and play). We need, as the new 21st century phenomena has come to be known, a digital detox. At work, we need to get serious about focussing on the task at hand.
- Create a list of tasks to work on today, and work your way through that list, only allowing yourself some preset times to attend to emails and other potentially distracting tasks.
- Turn off your email notifications so they don’t pop up while you’re working
- Switch off your iPhone, Blackberry, or HTC while you’re in the office, or at the very least while you’re working on your tasks. If you insist on just putting it into ‘silent’ mode, then place it in a drawer where you can’t see notifications popping up on the screen
- If you’re heading out for lunch or a coffee break, try leaving your phone behind. Chat to a friend/colleague instead, or enjoy the time out to read the newspaper, a book, or just ‘people watch’.
But just as significantly, we also need to reclaim our ‘personal’ time and make the most of that, enjoying the opportunity to socialise, relax, and not have to be constantly ‘switched on’.
In Brazil, new legislation was approved by President Rousseff last month deeming work emails sent and received outside business hours as ‘overtime’. Clearly workers had reached the point of saturation and were no longer happy to receive emails day and night without being compensated for being constantly ‘on duty’. Although the legislation doesn’t directly restrict the amount of after-hours communication, it should give employers good reason to reconsider sending emails if they’re going to incur additional overtime costs.
Automobile manufacturer Volkswagen has agreed with their employee’s labour representatives to limit emails to between 1/2 hour before the commencement of work until 1/2 hour after the end of their shift (Reuters). Whilst executives and mission-critical staff have been exempted, it’s clearly a significant step towards reclaiming a bit of work/life balance.
Numerous other examples of digital overload both during and after work hours are emerging:
- German consumer goods manufacturer Henkel imposed a ‘Blackberry-free week’ for the management board between Christmas and New Year (to be broken only in the case of an emergency)
- Telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom introduced a “Smart Device Policy” encouraging employees to claim communication-free time when they are off work, and promised in exchange not to expect them to read emails or answer their phones during those blackout times
- Multi-national IT services firm Atos plans to eliminate email entirely by 2013, with their CEO Thierry Breton describing emails as “an instrument to shirk responsibility” – the shift is already on to use Instant Messaging and Facebook-style internal systems which allow project teams to collaborate and communicate by posting on socially-enabled intranet web pages
- The Saudi Government has touted the idea of a complete ban on smart phone devices for Government employees during business hours (the concern being that staff were receiving too many non-work related interruptions which were impacting the quality of service they’re delivering. Although this idea may not be ideal, and has a lot of opposition, it nonetheless highlights the substantial number of distractions workers are confronted with every day
We’re clearly struggling to find a sustainable balance in the way we use all of our gadgets and technology. What do you think? I’d love to hear your comments, suggestions and anecdotes!
If you are not part of the cure, then you are part of the problem.
If you are not part of the cure, then you are part of the problem.
5 Reasons Your Not-for-Profit Marketing May Be Failing
Marketing of not-for-profit causes and organisations is the challenge of a lifetime. Many people expect that, because they’re promoting something incredibly worthwhile and rewarding, they simply need to get the message out and tens of thousands of supporters will materialise overnight. But as anybody who’s actually tried it can attest, that’s very rarely the case. Why?
In an increasingly socially conscious generation, many organisations are competing for the attention of your target audience. Numerous causes are asking donors to contribute funds out of the generosity of their heart, but with no direct economic benefit being offered in exchange, and the public is becoming increasingly discerning in their selection of organisations to support.
Here are five of the most common areas, in my experience, that marketing of NFP’s fall short:
1. Lack of Knowledge
Effective marketing strategies require market knowledge, product knowledge, company knowledge, and a strong working knowledge of the marketing mediums in which you’re going to promote.
I frequently see enthusiastic marketers throwing themselves directly into marketing campaigns based on a host of assumptions, many of which are inaccurate or unclear.
People often don’t know what they don’t know. Often, some basic market research would improve their focus, saving a lot of wasted energy on unproductive activities, and uncovering key motivators for their audience.
Likewise, when it comes to social media and online marketing opportunities, many marketers are struggling to keep up with a rapidly evolving landscape which changes the dynamics of marketing significantly. Where historically marketers ‘advertised’ their wares and controlled what was said, now consumers have the power and it is up to marketers to win their loyalty, support, and recommendations.
It is critical that marketers dedicate a suitable portion of their time to meeting with their peers, attending seminars, listening to the counsel of experts in their field, and generally ensuring that they are exposed to the successes of leaders in these new fields. (Our Marketing Essentials Seminar in September 2011 is one such venue to enhance their practical knowledge and skills in areas of Market Research, Internet Marketing, and Social Media).
2. Lack of Resources
I’ve seen a lot of campaigns launch and flop that were reasonably well devised, but failed predominantly because the organisation underestimated the resources necessary to achieve the stated goals.
A well researched and targeted message, with a compelling proposition, still needs to be heard by enough people. And the results are not linear. As you reach a certain level of public awareness, the message can take on a life of its own and this has a multiplying effect.
Therefore, radio advertising on a community radio station for a short period (e.g. a couple of weeks) may have little or no impact, and yet it’s inaccurate to assume that multiplying the radio budget by a factor of 10 would yield similarly poor results.
Using the same message, but increasing the repetition over a longer period of time and to a larger audience, may well generate great results, particularly when conducted as part of an integrated strategy with email marketing, social media, blogs, and so on.
Not-for-profit organisations need to understand that the old adage ‘you need to spend money to make money’ is (unfortunately) still essentially true.
Whilst you may be able to find clever ways to get free exposure, it’s very rare that an organisation can effectively promote themselves without dedicating the necessary human resources and budget to their marketing.
3. Lack of Differentiation
If you’ve researched the market, devoted sufficient resources, and got the message out to the right audience, the question still remains – “so what?”, “Why should I get involved with your organisation?”
Most of us are overwhelmed by a never-ending stream of requests from thousands of organisations all asking us to pitch in and help their ostensibly worthy cause. How does an individual decide who he’s going to commit his limited time or money to?
It’s a sad reality that the majority of the world lives in poverty, and there are tens of thousands of organisations trying to feed and educate starving and malnourished children, provide sanitary drinking water supplies, eradicate malaria and AIDS, and so on. Whilst your goals are noble, so are the goals of the last 10 requests the consumer was confronted with.
The key is differentiation. How you ‘position’ and differentiate yourself is a critical element of your marketing strategy.
4. Lack of Relationship
As more and more organisations go online to find and connect with their ‘audience’ and stakeholders, some are still thinking in the mindset of traditional advertising – that is, present a carefully crafted message for the masses, and trust that a sufficient percentage will respond favourably.
Social media marketing requires an adjustment of mindset. Whilst there are still opportunities to present advertisements and offers, the real power of social media lies in engaging the public (in particular your target audience) so that they participate in discussions, share your ideas with their own social networks, and give you suggestions, feedback, and even criticism.
Social media marketing is about relationship.
5. Lack of Sustainability
Perhaps the greatest challenge for many not-for-profit organisations, particularly those involved in international development and poverty alleviation, is leveraging the donations of financial supporters so that current marketing activities reap longer term rewards.
This is potentially the single most important question not-for-profit organisations can ask themselves. It’s a much bigger question than just “how do we advertise what we do”, it actually requires that you continually review your core operations and be prepared to enhance and adapt them to maximise the impact of the funding your receive.
I believe that it’s time for a lot of organisations to ask some tough questions about their whole operational model and consider new opportunities such as ‘creative capitalism‘, micro-lending, capacity building, and other commercial endeavours that, with the assistance of seed capital to launch, will over time become self-sustaining. (The book ‘Out of Poverty‘ by Paul Polak illustrates this brilliantly and may provide some inspiration. Also check out kiva.org)
If you could market your not-for-profit organisation with the promise of multiplying rewards, and potentially even some small returns to ‘investors’ (as opposed to donors) you would open the door to a vast new audience who, under current models, may be completely unreachable.
Why the NBN Should be Costed in Rupees
ONE in eight Australians will be able to work from home by 2020 under an ambitious blueprint for the National Broadband Network that predicts it will save the typical family $148 a week. At least, that’s what yesterday’s Herald Sun declared.
For those not yet familiar with the currency exchange rate, that’s savings of about Rp. 7113. (The Indian national currency is Rupee, and there’s about Rp. 48 for every AUD $1.)
Yesterday’s launch of the National Digital Economy Strategy was, of course, the trigger for this most recent Herald Sun article. A key plank of the ‘strategy’ is the supposed benefits to be derived from our improved ability to ‘telework’. The Gillard Labor Government jumped on “a recent survey of Australian businesses [that] revealed that 20 per cent believed the NBN would change their employment model by facilitating increased flexibility in the location of staff and expanding the supply of skilled labour”, and started throwing around figures of a few billion dollars extra value to our economy.
But as any economist or market researcher knows, you can’t make policy decisions and fiscal projections on the basis of a throw-away question in a popular opinion survey.
Any role that can be performed by a teleworker in Australia, can be done more cheaply by a teleworker in India or Philippines – which is of course the ultimate when it comes to “increased flexibility in the location of staff and expanding the supply of skilled labour”. Businesses in Australia don’t care who does the job, as long as it gets done – and preferably at the lowest possible price. They’re not going to give preference to a swag of individual home-based rural Australian workers when, for half the price, they can have a whole team of trained and supervised Indians working in a professional office environment in Bangalore.
Likewise, as the article points out, “by the end of the decade it will be common for people to visit the GP for a standard check-up without leaving their home”. Of course, this is not a capability that is the sole domain of the NBN, but its reach is extended into even the most remote rural areas, increasing the attractiveness and commercial viability of the Australian marketplace for Internet-based medical practices around the world.
And if we don’t feel confident going directly to an Indian online doctor and being quoted in Rupees, our entrepreneurial Australian medicos will be able to help us bridge the gap, providing a reassuring local face for a service which is Medicare compliant, but which they can then substantially outsource to India.
Meanwhile, Australia continues to strengthen our cultural and economic ties with India, as we welcome large numbers of students, migrant workers, and students who become migrant workers. In a bid to overcome our ‘skills shortage’, we’ve been able to import entire gangs of car wash attendants, shopping trolley collectors, McDonalds night crews, and of course 95% of our professional taxi drivers. This has been highly effective in releasing our unskilled Australian citizens from such mundane and mind-numbing employment to pursue more important roles such as trying to become a teleworker or perhaps develop some new skills in order to take on one of those burgeoning careers for which we currently have a skills shortage.
As our ties to India become more robust, Australian firms have the flexibility to improve efficacy through telework arrangements with India, and all Australians have NBN access to engage a GP, lawyer, accountant, business consultant, security monitoring firm, or even enrol for university studies in India at a fraction of the local cost, it begs the question – will the Government put pride above practicality and cling on to the Australian Dollar even after it’s passed it’s use by date, or will they be progressive enough to follow in the footsteps of the EU and consider adopting a common currency, most likely the Rupee because of it’s universal applicability?
The playing field is being leveled. Teleworkers will need to work for comparable rates to their Indian compatriots if they wish to have any real prospect of securing a job. Potentially, leveraging the benefits of the NBN, they could even secure contracts with Indian and other foreign employers. And as our income levels start to reach an equilibrium more in line with Indian remuneration, our spending power and economic activity will also adjust to a point where it will make more sense to collaborate with India using a single currency.
Given that the NBN is going to open up these amazing opportunities to a greater range of businesses and consumers to access cheap and efficient services from India, would it not have made more sense to cost and justify the NBN in the currency which is likely to dominate the transactions it facilitates?
No longer will your opportunities be restricted based upon your geographical location – thanks to the NBN, you will now be able to compete freely with anybody else, located anywhere in the world.
Are your ideas ‘good’ or ‘bad’?
I was recently re-reading another great book from Edward de Bono, “New Thinking for the New Millennium”, which was published in 1999 and is clearly as just as applicable today as it was 12 years ago. Human nature being what it is, we have a tendency to get lazy in our thinking and, for expediency, process many of our decisions on auto-pilot.
If we want to really make progress in our businesses, and in society generally, we need to take time to think constructively and with genuine creativity. This involves challenging other people’s thinking, and allowing them to challenge ours.
Money is a token of exchange. In the past a fisherman might exchange fish for grain from a farmer. A brothel lady in Nevada could be paid with a chicken. Money was more convenient. You were paid in money and you could then busy something with the money. In the same way there are certain ‘value words’, which act as tokens of value. Instead of having to explain why something will not work or having to show that something might indeed work, you use simple words like ‘good’ and ‘bad’: ‘That is a bad idea’; ‘That is a good idea.’ ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ are token words which are accepted as indicating value. Just as a person with too much money can become a spendthrift, so the very existence of these value words means they can be applied rather too easily. They can be applied without any need for justification. It is only if the labels are challenged that justification may be demanded. The immense ease of this sort of judgement makes thinking unnecessary and the outcomes very poor. The applied judgements are just as easily based on emotions as on logic.”
- Edward de Bono (New Thinking for the New Millennium)
Often, the dynamics of corporate life discourage team members from challenging the accepted wisdom or requesting justification. If the boss dismisses something as a ‘bad’ idea, that’s normally as far as it goes. Companies need to be able to get on with the day-to-day job of delivering value to their customers, and repeatedly doing what they know works well (this is known as process, procedure, “best practice”) – so it’s untenable to have staff challenging every decision that’s made.
But could this mean we fall into the trap of stifling real progress? What could we be doing to nurture and reward thinking processes which will challenge the status quo and trigger genuine innovation and creativity?
Office space @ $50/per week for freelance IT person
Yes, you read right – if you’re a freelance IT guru and would like a desk space in our modern, light, cheery office located in Nunawading, we’re offering a desk for only $50+GST per week.
You’ll have your own dedicated desk, all utility bills covered, use of our VoIP phone system, broadband internet, and of course the delightful pleasure of our company! With an office like this, you’ll be able to walk straight in and keep working for your existing clients from a far more professional and productive business environment.
But there’s a catch.
This isn’t a rental agreement in the traditional sense. We want to know a lot more about you. You see, we want to be able to ask you to look after our clients as well.
We want you to help out with designing networks, deploying servers and workstations, installing, maintaining and supporting applications, and generally performing all the I.T. support and maintenance tasks that a small business requires of you. You will of course be paid for this – we’re not expecting anything for free. We’re not even expecting preferential treatment. But we do want you based in our office, so we can work together and liaise more closely.
So you’ll need to have a strong background in Microsoft technologies – Windows Small Business Server 2008, Exchange Server, Sharepoint, Group Policies, enterprise-level anti-virus/Internet security solutions, desktop applications such as Office 2010, Adobe Reader, and so on. You know the drill.
This is really an opportunity for somebody who’s brilliant technically but gets bogged down by the headaches of running a business to jump-start things and take things to the next level through partnering strategically with us.
This offer is initially for 3 months, ideally as a transition to a more permanent arrangement between us. At the end of the 3 months we can all sit down and discuss how it’s working.
Interested?
Give Philip Brookes a call on 1300 85 70 75, or email info@aktiv.com.au with your CV and a short paragraph about why you’d like to collaborate with us – we look forward to hearing from you!
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Have you been inadvertently seduced into the ‘we need more of this good thing’ mindset? Whether in marketing, business more broadly, family life, friendships, or business, corporate, and national finances, it’s common place (and entirely natural) for us to think that if something is ‘good’ and it’s been beneficial for us thus far, then we want more of this good thing.
If something is good, then surely more of it is better? Once we have applied the judgement value of ‘good’, then that thing is good – and we want good things. Once something is placed in the ‘good-to-have’ box then we want more and more. Yet there are so many instances where this is simply not true. Food without any salt tastes bad. Some salt is good. Too much salt is again bad.
I sometimes call this the salt curve. No communication is bad. More communication is good. Surely, more and more communication can only be better? The average American manager gets 178 e-mail messages every day. Because email is so easy, you automatically send the same message to everyone on your list. It is possible to be overwhelmed and burdened by too much communication. Free movement of money and goods is the opposite of protectionism and is good for trade. But the unrestricted adoration of ‘globalism’ may not be an unmixed blessing. Money surges around the world in search of immediate gain and at the expense of sustained productivity. Water in a basin flops about. Put a grid in the basin and the giant flops are reduced to tiny flops in each square of the grid. Freedom is good and more and more freedom is better. But at a certain point freedom becomes licence and your freedom interferes with the freedom of others. This is another of the major faults of the crude judgement system. It is easy to acknowledge this fault intellectually, but much more difficult to deal with it in practice. At what precise point does the striving towards ‘more of a good thing’ turn into a ‘bad thing’? Each next step must surely be good – even if the overall picture suggests that the ultimate effect is not good?
- Edward de Bono (New Thinking for a New Millennium)
I can think of quite a few situations in which we’re chasing after “too much of a good thing”. I’d love to hear your comments on this topic!
