Innovation

If you were in an accident or got sick, what would happen to your business?  Could your business continue operating for several weeks or months without your day to day attention?  Could your spouse or a family member or a trusted employee step up and keep it going, until you returned?

For many business owners, I’m afraid the answer would be “no.”  The business would quickly wither and die down or collapse altogether if without our attention for extended periods.  With a small business, so much depends on the individual business owner who runs things day to day.

That’s where systematized activities and an operations manual come into play.

Recently franchise expert Joel Libava wrote about the need to write down processes and procedures if you intend to franchise your business. That’s the only way your franchisees can replicate your processes and success.

That got me to thinking about the need for an operations manual even if you have no intentions of franchising. I suddenly realized that most of what it takes to run my business is in my head.  Even when I’ve had to train staff and explain processes, it’s been 90% verbal.

And that’s not good. read more

I am of the Baby Boomer generation and I’ve been using technology for 25+ years.

So I have to laugh when I read articles suggesting Baby Boomers are a bunch of old, tech illiterate dinosaurs.

OK, maybe the calendar doesn’t lie and we are getting up there in years.

But what’s with this tech illiterate stereotype, already???

What prompted me to write this is a recent blog post I read about entrepreneurs and technology. The post basically made the point that you should dumb-down technology for Boomer entrepreneurs. It was written by a 20-something tech blogger. (Said blogger shall remain nameless to protect the guilty.)

Here’s a news flash for Gen Xers, Gen Yers and Millennials: read more

The Behance Team recently interviewed Ian McCallam, founder and creator of the website This Ain’t No Disco. Whenever we interview especially productive creative people, we always ask for their tips on how to organize, stay productive, and lead others in the pursuit of making ideas happen. Ian has some particularly helpful insights and observations to share on successful creative environments that combine inspiration and execution:

40 second meetings.
“An agency I did some work with had a great system of 40 second meetings. Only those who needed to be present were present. It was their job to ‘gather the facts’ before the meeting. Each person had 40 seconds to get across their point and updates. Members of the meeting had truly learned how to cut to the chase and make their point the most important. This skill followed through into their day-to-day work. They now have a stronger ability to identify the true action points from the clutter. Timelines for jobs have since been dramatically decreased.” read more

The chemistry of a creative team is absolutely critical for making ideas happen. What goes unsaid can erupt into a great fiasco. When a problem is brewing, our tendency is to block it out. After all, who wants to be confrontational or take time out when stress and deadlines are looming? But an “infection” left untreated can become a full-blown disaster. The most effective creative teams are able to detect and address concerns before they evolve into problems.

If a team is like a living body, then person is part of an intricate immune system. Any member of the team should be able to notice and alert the team to a brewing problem, and the entire team should coordinate to address it. A single concern for one is a worthy concern for all. read more

Earlier today I wrote a post about a new policy we’re implementing at my business. I thought readers here might enjoy the post, so here it is in its entirety:

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In the past few years, the weekend has taken on a new meaning for me. In short, it’s now defined by work. The weekend is when I catch up on work I can’t get done during the week, in particular work that requires long form thinking, the kind of thinking that powers drafting considered memos and strategy documents, even posting to this or other blogs. read more

So the Associated Press (AP) kicked up a little kerfuffle last week when it started threatening bloggers who quote AP stories.

It seems that the AP sent a takedown notice to an independent blog site called the Drudge Retort, demanding that they stop quoting AP stories and linking back to them.

The news media and bloggers are having a field day with it. Things did NOT die down over the weekend. In fact, if anything many people are just winding up to have their say.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch responded to the AP’s actions by noting that the AP is wrong — and banning AP stories. Mathew Ingram, technology writer with Toronto’s Globe and Mail is just one of the chorus of veteran journalists and editors opining that the AP needs to get a clue. Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine goes further and says, “For shame, AP.”

What’s at issue is the interpretation of copyright law and what constitutes “fair use.” If the quoting of the AP articles is fair use, then it’s protected under copyright law. If it isn’t fair use, then it’s not protected.

There’s even a handy 4-part test of what constitutes fair use.

Sounds like an easy issue, right? Just look it up and see what’s fair use, right? read more

Some of the most productive creative minds rely on a periodic self-administered dose of randomness to stay stimulated. Stimulation is not only necessary when developing new ideas, but is also critical when refining solutions to a particular problem. Every brain benefits from new angles that often escape your traditional point of view.

Some creative professionals credit past mistakes as moments of realization. At this year’s TED conference, fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi explained that a lot of his ‘design ideas come from mistakes or tricks of the eye.’ Mistakes are illuminating because they are unexpected. But you don’t need to screw up in order to find randomness. read more