ThoughtElf

This is my kind of Thought Leader who truly understands Realtionships.

I saw the most incredible man in one news clip. I wish I'd noted the town he was from, but I do recall that it was in one of the Northern-most towns worst hit by the tsunami. Devastated. This hunched little old man was traveling from decimated home to home, digging through the debris for only one thing -> he was salvaging photographs. He held several out to the reporter like the most precious gems and said, "Look! Look at these! This one looks like little children on a kindergarten outing to a fire station. These are what we must recover. They will be treasures for someone if all else is lost." I could've dove through the tv right then & there to bow before that wise old soul for his wisdom & love for his fellow man.

I've been watching the quake news since it hit. Now contemplating some of the post-crisis phase impacts that the media aren't talking about yet.

This Reuters live update site seems to have some of the best fact-based coverage so far:

http://live.reuters.com/Event/Japan_earthquake2

And twitter is breaking news faster than any of the media - usually 15-20 minute lead time under the hashtags #eqjp #japan #quake or #tsunami

This will have huge impact on so many levels, aside from the horrible loss of life.

Tough, tough road ahead for the survivors. All that farmland lost, and they really don't have that much agricultural land per capita. Plus the loss of the equipment, the animals, seed grains, fields littered with debris. The fishing industry is also kiboshed for a while. And, it is winter there, so will take much longer for the earth to dry out, before any land reclaimation projects can even begin. Loss of their own food production is devastating.

And of course, we're already seeing the impact on the economy at a high level with stocks dropping and stock futures, too. Bit-by-bit there will be increases added to exports like the price of electronics, imported food like sushi ingrediants & foodie fancy Waygu beef, much of which comes from the Sendai region, which was particularly hard hit by the tsunami.   It is also a coal-mining area and produces most of Japan's apples.

Did you know one of the top 10 Japanese exports to US in 2010 was penicillin? I didn't until I just looked it up.

  That makes me question what their own penicillin stores are like? They'll be in need many anti-biotics in the coming weeks & months until an abundance of fresh water is available.

And by 'Senior Moments' I don't mean that addressing the needs of the elderly is forgotten, but that they aren't lost in the pursuit of the younger generations of tech & net savvy customers. Are you giving Grandma customer experience moments she'd happily tweet to her grand-kids?

Many articles and strategies that are written about the future of customer service are primarily focused on digital campaigns, online support systems and rewards generated via social media. I have to wonder if we're forgetting the needs of seniors simply because they aren't logging in to update their location at any given time? Maybe we need to rethink how we can still use advancements like geo-based technology to better serve our older audience.

As an example, while one local hospital here provides a reasonably priced transporatation service for elderly and mobility-challenged patients to get back and forth for thrice weekly haemodialysis treatements, it could be greatly improved for the old folks, the hospital staff and the drivers.  Each night there is a parade of medical vans & taxis pulled up to the loading zone curb, waiting anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour for the patients to be brought down from the satellite unit. At the same time, other patients are bundled up in their wheel chairs, lined up by the lobby doors, exposed to the chilly winter drafts as they patiently wait for their rides. While I wait to pick up my Mom, I sit and ponder how this whole system could be easily innovated with a little thought thrown at it, at low cost.

Patients' wrist bands are scanned as they are taken in & out of the unit. While the length of time to be spent each night on the hemo machine varies depending on the patient's weight that day, the nurses usually know before they begin the treatment what time the patient will be 'off'.  Now imagine if the patients, their families, and the professional drivers had the option to voluntarily participate in a subscription to a text update.  Nothing that invaded health record privacy, but just a simple: Patient X Lobby Pick-up ETA: 10:35 p.m. triggered by a scan of the wristband.

It seems like such a small change, but if it means that sweet old folks like my own Mom don't have to sit in a drafty hospital lobby for a second longer than necessary, then her 'Senior Moment' would be a minute of delight that she could return home to rest up after tiring treatment all the sooner. She'd never have to see a darn text herself or be cell phone savvy, but she'd have a much better consumer experience.

Amused by this wry comment by @sardire as a commentary on Gartner coining new phrase 'social content management'.

"let's stick 'social' in front of most software categories and get social content mgmt, social business software, social customer relationship mgmt, social business intelligence, social semantic web and so on for social ad nauseum ;)"

From this RWW article:

I've quite deliberately limited my reading on all things Quora so that I can experience it as an uninformed newbie. My initial impression after signing up two days ago, then logging in again tonight to find 85 notifications is 'WTH'? Pity the poor arse who attempts Quora before mastering Twitter.

Quora is using some hard-core Hocus Pocus to mainline 'Suggest Followers' into the stream in a way that Twitter hasn't achieved. I strongly suspect that Quora is data-mining Twitter to feed this drug habit, based on the followers that have cropped up and probably clicked 'follow all' in haste to test the newest shiny toy, but... in my own short courting period with Quora, we're still deciding on a next date, much less getting pinned to each other for the prom.

I haven't yet posed a question, nor have I yet to comment on one, yet, there are already more than 80 folks following me on Quora? That takes suggested followers to an entirely new, (and suspect), level. I'd love to know what the gateway drug is. Trending? Twitter lists? Twitter interactions?

I get that this is a very savvy marketing move to boost demo data for the product launch, but I'm reticent to offer kudos at this point. Not sure about you, but my own twitter feed is filled with folks whom I appreciate for their content, character and comedic abilities, and not necessarily in that order. I already use Twitter lists for segmentation, which works well. I do wonder if this mass 'new following' on Quora is as useful, or will bite some in the butt later? Some of those same good people I tweet with are not likely to have the slightest bit of interest in the questions I might wish to learn from, or add my two bits to, on Quora.

I wonder how much SM housekeeping I'll wish to do on Quora in three months?

I think there is great promise in the idea, especially if some sort of suggestion on interest/expertise weighting is applied down the line as the system matures, but I am not at all certain that this method of populating the database for the product launch was entirely-well thought out.

Unless they want to replace Twitter, rather than become a valuable resource in their own right. ;>

Stupid Dinosaur. No wonder you're now extinct.

There seems to be no perceived point or actionable value in advocating for enterprise-wide collaboration unless every post/tweet/status update includes 'Social Media' somewhere within. Dinosaurs like me will keep laying those stinky eggs in hopes that savvy enterprises 'get it' that they need to integrate social activity streams without focusing soley on Social in pursuit of the Holy Grail.

Some might think this is 'gaming the system', but I'll admit that I quite enjoy how one Grumpy Old (Irregular) Thought Leader stays true to his own self, his brand, and still engages effectively on Twitter. It works like this:

He authors a fine article - aimed at an audience (vendors) that have skin in the E20 game

I often RT the post, with a few observations, and might link to counter arguments

He's very selective, and rightfully so, about who he follows, and doesn't follow me - as a Thought Leader voice in the industry, that makes sense and doesn't offend

Yet, he'll sometimes follow me just long enough to send a pointed, often blisteringly-funny DM, then unfollow immediately

Thus, I can't reply in DM, but the message received will usually take me off in another direction of thought, researach, or simply cause gales of laughter

I'm not flattered one way or the other, nor is this a practive I can see myself adopting, but I admire that in this example, the gent referenced manages to balance his professional brand with some very human private education & engagement. This wouldn't work for all people, nor could many pull it off so well, but I appreciate that someone takes a slightly different approach from the usual 'all or nothing' follow/follower rules of engagement.

I like this twist on the usual. It works well for me as the recipient who learns much along the way, and suits the needs of the personal/professional brand. We hear 'gurus' yatter on about transparency & being human so often that I wonder if we lock ourselves into thinking that can only fit in one type of public social conversation? Perhaps we need to hear more examples of breaking out of the norms and using tools like twitter in different ways to communicate, while still colouring within the lines to enhance the full picture?

I hope Jeffrey Deaver's lawyers don't hunt me down and sue the coffee cup right out of my hand, but I enjoy this 'fable' from his book 'Speaking in Tongues' and figure I'll chance posting it because it reminds me of a lot of hype, gloom & doom some modern-day villagers speaketh. Moral is right up there with any Aesop offered.

 Just wrote this post on teaching customers, clients, and friends the Left Column method for listening & engaging on Twitter.

Was doing more research this morning on observable work and while reading the post Managing the visibility of knowledge work, it struck me again that we need to retrain ourselves constantly to be better Knowledge Workers. 

The domain knowledge we each have is likely worth much more to others than we ever imagine, (I know my own synapse bursts are worth kabillions,) but as with the craft work presentation preparation example given in this post, we (or at least I,) need to pause at each step when preparing a deliverable to share the steps in the creation and work to make them more visible to others.