What's That?

It is an emotion related to natural inquisitive behavior such as exploration, investigation and learning, evident by observation in human and many animal species. The term can also be used to denote the behavior itself being caused by the emotion of curiosity.

So with that in mind...

Stay curious for learning. Stay curious about improving. Stay curious through searching. Stay curious like a child. Stay curious about now. Stay curious in life. Stay curious about others. Stay curious about learning. Stay curious for you. Stay curious through listening. Stay curious through living. Stay curious about possibilities. Stay curious in business. Stay curious about experiences. Stay curious for next.

Stay curious.

Curiosity

It is an emotion related to natural inquisitive behavior such as exploration, investigation and learning, evident by observation in human and many animal species. The term can also be used to denote the behavior itself being caused by the emotion of curiosity.

So with that in mind...

Stay curious for learning. Stay curious about improving. Stay curious through searching. Stay curious like a child. Stay curious about now. Stay curious in life. Stay curious about others. Stay curious about learning. Stay curious for you. Stay curious through listening. Stay curious through living. Stay curious about possibilities. Stay curious in business. Stay curious about experiences. Stay curious for next.

Stay curious always.
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Collaborative Culture

As much as it’s funky to have exposed brick, a foosball table in the lunch room, and lattes at 3pm, those won’t ensure your company has engaged employees who will do passionate work. Culture is much deeper. It’s a feeling and an instinct that can’t be forced or faked. And it takes work to upkeep. Every day. From everyone.

Here are seven areas to consider in making your company a great place to work.

Give – No matter the survey, compensation always makes it into one of the top reasons people stay or leave a company. But if money is the number one concern of employees, you have a serious issue. Pay people properly.

Define – What makes people want to bring their best every day and feel appreciated? If you can’t explain it in a sentence or two, dig deeper.

Value – What does your company stand for and what won’t it do? Two significant questions that seem easy enough to answer yet most struggle with them. We want to be a part of something that aligns with our values.

Open – Not all decisions can be made by committee. In fact most people want leadership to guide the way, but keep communication open enough for people to feel you genuinely want their input and ideas.

Stretch – Departments are created for a reason. Sales focuses on revenue while product design improves the offering. But don’t box people in so they can’t offer input to areas where they might not be subject matter experts. Some of the best ideas may come from the most unexpected places.

Lead – From small companies with a handful of employees to the Fortune 50, the relationship people have with their direct report and the people closest to them in their day-to-day work experience, will be the single biggest reason they stay or leave. Model the behavior you want from others.

Together – Teamwork and collaboration are a core elements to great culture. We want to belong and contribute so afford everyone the chance to do both.

Like trust, respect is earned not mandated by an org chart. So if you want great company culture, create an atmosphere of respect and trust and watch what happens.

Or work on your foosball skills
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Enjoy This Ride

The new year is fresh and many of us are looking it with optimism, but how often do we look at the past to compare it to what's ahead of us rather than focusing solely on possibilities ahead? One of my go-to songs is from a band called Morcheeba, it's entitled "Enjoy the Ride".

I think we spend far too much of our time looking back and looking forward and not enough time enjoying now. Now is not always fun and the ride is certainly not always smooth – in fact, it’s often quite bumpy. But if we pay more attention, we may stop chasing shadows in our work, our companies, our relationships, and our lives.

Maybe we'll enjoy this ride.


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Wash Your Hands

There are products, sales, marketing, people, share price, competition and many other factors that keep business people up at night. In the documentary "The Corporation", producers examined the modern-day company. They evaluated its behaviour towards society and the world at large as a psychiatrist might evaluate an ordinary person.

They concluded if the corporation was human, her ultimate goal would be to make money above all else. If that is the sole purpose of your company, be nervous. Fiscal health is imperative but without strong internal customer service, it will be a struggle.

If you don’t treat people well, they won't stick around, or worse they may stay and have a hand in your demise. Treat them right with strong and fair leadership and those profits will actually increase. We all share an inherent human need to belong.

That doesn't stop when entering the work area.
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Great Culture in Seven Steps

As much as it’s funky to have exposed brick, a foosball table in the lunch room, and lattes at 3pm, those won’t ensure your company has engaged employees who will do passionate work. Culture is much deeper. It’s a feeling and an instinct that can’t be forced or faked. And it takes work to upkeep. Every day. From everyone.

Here are seven areas to consider to make your company a great place to work.

Give – No matter the survey, compensation always makes it into one of the top reasons people stay or leave a company. But if money is the number one concern of employees, you have a serious issue. Pay people properly.

Define – What makes people want to bring their best every day and feel appreciated? If you can’t explain it in a sentence or two, dig deeper.

Value – What does your company stand for and what won’t it do? Two significant questions that seem easy enough to answer yet most struggle with them. We want to be a part of something that aligns with our values.

Open – Not all decisions can be made by committee. In fact most people want leadership to guide the way, but keep communication open enough for people to feel you genuinely want their input and ideas.

Stretch – Departments are created for a reason. Sales focuses on revenue while product design improves the offering. But don’t box people in so they can’t offer input to areas where they might not be subject matter experts. Some of the best ideas may come from the most unexpected places.

Lead – From small companies with a handful of employees to the Fortune 50, the relationship people have with their direct report and the people closest to them in their day-to-day work experience, will be the single biggest reason they stay or leave. Model the behavior you want from others.

Together – Teamwork and collaboration are a core elements to great culture. We want to belong and contribute so afford everyone the chance to do both.

Like trust, respect is earned not mandated by an org chart. So if you want great company culture, create an atmosphere of respect and trust and watch what happens.

Or you could order the latte machine and hope for the best. 
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Stay Curious

Curiosity is an emotion related to natural inquisitive behavior such as exploration, investigation and learning, evident by observation in human and many animal species. The term can also be used to denote the behavior itself being caused by the emotion of curiosity.

So with that in mind...

Stay curious for learning. Stay curious about improving. Stay curious through searching. Stay curious like a child. Stay curious about now. Stay curious in life. Stay curious about others. Stay curious about learning. Stay curious for you. Stay curious through listening. Stay curious through living. Stay curious about possibilities. Stay curious in business. Stay curious about experiences. Stay curious for next.

Stay curious always.
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Enjoy the Ride

One of my go-to songs is from a band called Morcheeba entitled Enjoy the Ride. There was a situation recently that made me crank it a few times. We spend far too much of our time looking back and looking forward and not enough time enjoying now.

Now is not always fun and the ride is certainly not always smooth – in fact, it’s often quite bumpy. But if we pay more attention, we may stop chasing shadows in our work, our companies, our relationships, and our lives and enjoy this ride.


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Kneale Mann | People + Priority = Profit

Morcheeba | mickym77

Seven Ideas for Great Company Culture

As much as it’s funky to have exposed brick, a foosball table in the lunch room, and lattes at 3pm, those won’t ensure your company has engaged employees who will do passionate work. Culture is much deeper. It’s a feeling and an instinct that can’t be forced or faked. And it takes work to upkeep. Every day. From everyone.

Here are seven areas to consider to make your company a great place to work.

Give
No matter the survey, compensation always makes it into one of the top reasons people stay or leave a company. But if money is the number one concern of employees, you have a serious issue. Pay people properly.

Define
What makes people want to bring their best every day and feel appreciated? If you can’t explain it in a sentence or two, dig deeper.

Value
What does your company stand for and what won’t it do? Two significant questions that seem easy enough to answer yet most struggle with them. We want to be a part of something that aligns with our values.

Open
Not all decisions can be made by committee, in fact most people want leadership to guide the way, but keep communication open enough for people to feel you genuinely want their input and ideas.

Stretch
Departments are created for a reason. Sales focuses on revenue while product design improves the offering. But don’t box people in so they can’t offer input to areas where they might not be subject matter experts. Some of the best ideas may come from the most unexpected places.

Lead
From small companies with a handful of employees to the Fortune 50, the relationship people have with their direct report and the people closest to them in their day-to-day work experience, will be the single biggest reason they stay or leave. Model the behavior you want from others.

Together
Teamwork and collaboration are a core elements to great culture. We want to belong and contribute so afford everyone the chance to do both.

Like trust, respect is earned not mandated by an org chart. So if you want great company culture, create an atmosphere of respect and trust and watch what happens.

Or you could order the latte machine and hope for the best. 
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Kneale Mann | People + Priority = Profit

deviantart

How Do You Measure Success?

Many say leadership is about results and the ability to measure those results. If you run a company, you are compensated by the success of the bottom line. But are you sure you know of all the ways you can influence the profits of your work?

It may be somewhat simple to proclaim if we sell more stuff to more customers we will be more successful. But let’s look at the items we can’t necessarily measure which dramatically affect the way we view success.

More More More

Certainly in Western culture, it appears we can never get enough. We are chasing the dream, the goal, the customer, the money, and all the while not spending even a second realizing where we are and what we have right now.

This goes well beyond monetary measurement to include experiences, relationships, belonging, esteem, and fulfillment. We aren’t here long yet we spend our time chasing something we so rarely can even define.

A few years ago, facing an historic downturn in the hospitality industry, Chip Conley decided to discover how he could improve his company, his employee experience, and the relationship with customers.

Watch this.


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Kneale Mann | People + Priority = Profit

TED | Chip Conley

The Busy Culture

The year was 1582 and changes needed to be made. There had been much discussion for many years over this critical issue and the solution had been found.

This was the year the Gregorian calendar (also known as the Christian or Western calendar) was more widely used. It featured 365 days, 5 hours, and 49 seconds which was a reduction of 10 minutes and 48 seconds from the Julian calendar to align the celebration of Easter with the Spring Equinox. It's the calendar we use today.

Some of the prominent inventions of the 16th century included; bottled beer, the graphite pencil, the pocket watch, the map projector, the knitting machine, and flush toilets. Each was created within the time constraints of the calendar we have today.

What about now?

Since the year 2000, we have seen the emergence of the iPod, the Braille glove, birth control patch, artificial liver, the virtual keyboard, and the iPhone.

In the 16th century, the average life expectancy was around 50 and in some areas of the world – like North America – it’s close to 80 today. The world’s population in 1582 was about 500 million and it’s over 7 billion today.

Why is this important?

Since our current calendar was adopted, we are living 40% longer and the population has increased 350% but each of us still has only 24 hours in each day. Yet we continue to attempt to jam more and more stuff into each of them. More meetings, more email, more tasks, more deadlines, more sales calls, more everything.

In a hundred years, they may come up with another way of measuring days, years, and centuries. There will be medical breakthroughs to give humans a longer lifespan, and our finite planet will probably have a couple more billion people living on it which gives pause to the environmental impact. But hopefully the desire to do more tomorrow than today will at some point subside.

Let's exchange emails and book a meeting to discuss.
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Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

antiqwatch

Millions Of Years Of Social Networking

The Future of Now

Centuries from now, humans will be communicating through their transponders imbedded in their mechanically perfected brains about the significance of the social interface contrivance. It will be a new shiny toy. Early adopters will be touting its importance, evangelists will be telling all while the naysayers and late majority will remain skeptical.

There will be much discussion over the fastest and best flying transport vehicles while a strong group of intellectual free thinkers will remain fixed on the importance of connecting on a bionic human level.

Know-It-Alls 

Every brief moment in time brings with it people who think they invented it all. We use useless phrases like “in this day and age” as if nothing we are experiencing has happened before us. How arrogant. How shallow of us to actually convince ourselves that we are the chosen ones who unlocked the keys to human communication.

Sure it’s fun to play with the newest gizmo and spout off on the best way to use that thingamajig but let’s remember that almost seven billion of us want the same things – to be safe, to be happy, to be warm, to be fed, to be heard, to be appreciated, to be purposeful. And over a billion of us don't have that choice.

We're Not That Different

I help companies grow. But my passion and fascination from an early age is what makes people do what they do. Social business and human networks have been around since we've been kicking around this giant marble.

So if you’re stuck trying to figure out what your customers want, ask yourself what you want. Talk with them in a human voice. Allow them to truly interact with you and see what happens.

Now where’s my flying car?

Kneale Mann

image credit: istock

Your Personal Media Experience

One-to-One Rapport

It doesn’t matter if you work in television, radio, advertising, communications, marketing, digital or mobile; your top job is developing audience. You can use words like influence and connection, conversation and relationship but having more people consume your offering gives you a better chance on driving success through whatever metric you decide to employ.

Return on your investment may be measured by revenue or awareness but unless you are independently wealthy, you need to eventually realize results of some kind. So in the quest for advancement, most are hesitant to take chances and things get stuck.

Creating Your Experience

As you know, the word media is plural for medium yet there is plenty of evidence that some feel it is a catch-all phrase. But for the most part we consume media alone through gadgets and channels. And with technological advancements, our experience is more in our individual control every day. Our user experience can be uniquely ours.

You don’t read your Facebook newsfeed with ten other people. You aren’t sending tweets from the control room of a studio. And you are probably not devising your next blog post while mapping out storylines and an editorial calendar with your team. Creating and consumer media is a personal process. There are exceptions but we mostly read, watch, listen, write and interact alone. Our quest to reach and share with others makes the experience social.

Imagine. Create. Share.

Think about your average week. Mine consists of time online, calls, email, writing, maybe a webinar, group calls, business development, client work, proposals, team discussions, driving to appointments and research. Your week may be different but you are conducting most of that work alone through various media.

So when companies talk about gaining more market share or building a brand - which can only be done between customers - they often use averages and demographics, charts and trends and that is valuable information but more times than not our clientele consume our offering alone.

How can you enhance customer need on a personal level?

Kneale Mann

image credit: thecoolgadgets

Encore: Don't Listen to Them

Opinions are Just Opinions

We enjoy receiving validation and positive feedback. No one likes others who are overly negative. We enjoy acceptance. Having happy customers is a good thing. Support of friends and family is important to us.

But when we begin to measure our success, or worse, our importance by the number of friends, followers, subscribers or connections we have on the social web, we can quickly lose touch with reality.

Our need to belong

The outcast at school or the frustrated idea guy who has run up against the wall of executives who “don’t understand”, feel the same way. It sucks when we're not accepted. Those who walk among us with skin like a cobra fascinate me. The rest of us do care what people think despite our weak protests to the contrary.

But when does that need become an obsession? Do we believe those who say they don’t pay attention to what others say about them? Can we do the same? Just imagine what it would be like if it was really that easy to be a renegade with blinders to others and blaze our own path. Let’s go for it. Who cares what they say. We’re not gonna listen to them.

This is not about being arrogant, You can't walk on people. But to mix things up, let's stop asking for approval on our ideas so often. Do you think it can work? Can we do it?

Let's take the advice of the fine Dr. Seuss. “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”  

Kneale Mann | How can I help?

image credit: travelperch
original post: Nov 2010

Don’t Listen to Them

Opinions are great, but...

We enjoy receiving validation and positive feedback, that's clear. No one likes someone who is overly negative. Keep that in mind next time someone says; “wha’dya think?”

We often seek the opinion of others simply to confirm our own.

We enjoy acceptance. Having happy customers is a good thing. Support of friends and family is important to us.

But when we begin to measure our success, or worse, our importance by the number of friends, followers, subscribers or connections we have on the social web, we can quickly lose touch with reality.

Our need to belong.

But when does that need become an obsession? Do we believe those who say they don’t pay attention to what others say about them? Can we do the same?

The outcast at school or the frustrated idea guy who has run up against the wall of executives who “don’t understand”, feel the same way. It sucks when we're not accepted. Those who walk among us with skin like a cobra fascinate me. The rest of us do care what people think despite our weak protests to the contrary.

Imagine if it was really that easy to be a renegade with blinders to others and blaze our own path. Let’s go for it.
Who cares what they say, we’re not gonna listen to them!

This is not about being arrogant. Leadership does actually require a team. We won't walk on people and we are certainly not better than anyone else. We are simply going to stop asking for approval on our ideas and start leading the charge toward what drives us. And in that world, numbers are obsolete.

We are simply following Dr. Seuss’ timeless advice; “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”

Sound like a plan? You in?

knealemann | email



Join me for Movember.
image credit: dr. seuss | cashprior

Our Need to Belong

What do you need?

Abraham Maslow wrote a paper in 1943 entitled The Theory of Human Motivation. The most famous portion of the work was his Hierarchy of Needs.

As you may know, it covered everything from our basic requirements for food and shelter to safety, self-esteem, morality, health, self actualization and one aspect that I find fascinating which is our desire to belong.

It is the reason we have clubs, teams, communities and networks. We need each other for commerce and business but we also need each other to converse and create, build and share. It is the essence of social networking which has been around for a couple of hundred million years.

Read the Room

While attending SobCon earlier this year, I noticed a shift in the tone of the discussions. It was not a room full of web geeks; it was an astute group of smart established business professionals. Sure, many of us met online but that’s where the conversation began. It was a conduit at best.

I was smiling yesterday as I read some positive comments about BlogWorld happening in Vegas this week and some even shocked about the professionalism of the speakers and presentations. Perhaps this is because we believe the online tools will help move the revenue line but still surprised that it really is doing that.

But SobCon and BlogWorld or any other convention is irrelevant without the people and our need to belong. You don’t get excited that you’re going to the game this weekend so you can sit by yourself, you are going to share an experience with others – in some cases, thousands of others.

So what do we do with all this?

Our need to belong is wired into our collective DNA. Don’t believe me? Remove all contact with humans for 24 hours. No contact! No email. No Internet. No phone. No tweets. No TV. No radio. No wireless device. Nothing.

The entire reason 33 miners were pulled out of an apartment sized hole in the earth a mile down was their ability to be a community. They longed to survive together.

How can you embrace our inherent need to belong in your business?

knealemann

image credit: socgeo ruhosting