By Saul Kaplan, on Mon Sep 23, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET Calling all innovators and designers. It is time to get below the buzzwords and to mobilize our networks with urgency and purpose. Waiting for public and private sector institutions to transform our urban economies won’t work. It is up to us to deliver on the promise of social media platforms and self-organizing networks. We must mobilize purposeful networks to address the big social challenges of our time including education, economic, and workforce development. I got a big wake up call last week while visiting Detroit for the first time. Talk about a burning platform. If you need a call to action just visit Detroit and see the devastation for yourself.
This once great industrial city is a shell of its former self. Detroit has lost half of its population going from a peak in the 1950′s of 2 million to under 1 million in the 2000 census. It is expected that the population will settle below 700,000 as unemployment and home foreclosures continue to fuel out-migration. What is to become of those that can’t get out and are left behind?
Real unemployment rates in Detroit are thought to be as high as 50% and recent block-by-block surveys indicate that about one in three land parcels are either vacant or abandoned. Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, called Detroit Public Schools a national disgrace that keeps him up at night. The new Mayor, Dave Bing, is talking about downsizing the city including drastic plans to relocate residents from desolate to stable neighborhoods.
 You get the picture. It is enough to make you cry. Detroit isn’t the only urban center that has been devastated by the departure of an industrial era along with its good manufacturing jobs. Is your city far behind Detroit? The need for bold moves and real systems change seems so obvious. We can’t possibly address these challenges with tweaks to our current economic, education, and workforce development systems.
I went to Detroit to participate in a conversation about changing the trajectory of our urban economies. I had high expectations but the well-intentioned leaders assembled seemed resigned to working within current economic development models and systems to change our urban outcomes. I guess I naively expected more outrage and a greater sense of urgency for bold action to change the trajectory.
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Saul Kaplan: Wake Up Call
By Saul Kaplan, on Mon Sep 16, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET Click here to review or order
Dan Pink always makes me think. Each of his books elicits an “AHA” moment with staying power. Free Agent Nation changed the way I think about work and relate to institutions forever. A Whole New Mind rescued the right side of my brain from its inferiority complex and ignited a long-term love affair with design thinking. Dan’s book, Drive, is no different. It has crystallized my life-long instinct that our thinking about motivation and incentives is out of synch with the possibilities of the 21stcentury. Time to reboot motivation.
The 20th century was all about management. The North Star was how to get more people to go through the motions efficiently. Seeking personal meaning in work was a distraction. The best workers follow the rules, work hard, and smile. Work boiled down to an algorithm rendering out any creativity or autonomy. Fulfillment and empowerment were HR buzzwords and the “soft stuff” relegated to off-site retreats that don’t get in the way of real work. Incentives in the industrial era were all about carrots and sticks. Motivation was based solely on external factors including compensation, title, office, and promotion opportunities.
Early in my consulting career I worked for a boutique firm that specialized in sales force incentive compensation programs. I was consistently amazed by the gaping disconnect between the home office that inevitably over-engineered its goal setting and compensation practices and the actual behavior out in the sales territory. Sales representatives made quick work of these elegant plans figuring out how to game the system to optimize earnings. They cherry-picked the incentive plans based on experience, likelihood of earning a payout, and implications for the following year. The annual dance was de-motivating and rarely resulted in self-directed effort to maximize either the short or long-term value of customer relationships within a sales territory.
I have observed legions of managers attempting to manipulate the dials of industrial era tools to optimize the output of employees. While it was clear to me that this approach sucked the meaning, autonomy, and motivation out of work for most employees it had the unfortunate advantage of delivering short-term business results, until it didn’t. The game changed when computers began to replace people doing repeatable work tasks. Technology also enabled repeatable work that still requires human involvement to move to lower cost locations. If it can be reduced to an algorithm it can either be virtualized or moved. This work is dehumanizing and uninteresting. Industrial era work has left the U.S. and it is not coming back. The work remaining to do requires both a new set of 21st century skills and a new approach to incentives and performance management.
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Saul Kaplan: Reboot Motivation
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri Sep 13, 2013 at 2:30 PM ET The San Francisco Chronicle ran a great piece this week on my friend, John Roulac, who as CEO and Founder of Nutiva, has turned hemp seeds into a $70 million/year business. I excerpt a few of my favorite passages from the interview, which you can find here in full:
Q: Why do you think you’re one of the fastest-growing companies? Is it the popularity of your products? Is there no competition? Or is it a particular way you’re running your company? Because $70 million for hemp and chia seeds, really?
A: We’ve been fortunate that the categories we’re in – organics – are fast growing. We have a lot of competition. But the fact that we were pioneers gives us an advantage. I’ve also been good at predicting the next big super food.
Our distributors thought we were crazy when we started doing coconut oil in 2003, given concerns about saturated fat. But now we’re the No. 1 seller of organic virgin coconut oil. We also have strong brand loyalty. And I think the fact that we’re focused on only four items helps. Focus is important.
Q: Let’s talk about hemp and chia seeds and coconut and red palm oils. Why do you think they’ve become popular with consumers?
A: The American people have been subjected to a science experiment, fed on a steady diet of genetically modified industrial foods grown with huge amounts of pesticides and made with preservatives and chemicals. That diet produces diabetes, cancer, heart disease, hormonal disruption and allergies. Even our dogs have issues. In the 1960s and 1970s our dogs ate food and ran around happy. Now they have all kinds of problems.
Q: Are you sure it’s the dogs and not their owners?
A: Maybe so, but people know something is wrong. They’re in search of an answer. Turning to a diet based on ancient principles is a good place to start. They’re returning to a time when people in other parts of the world ate a lot of coconuts, ate a lot of chia seeds. People are still going to eat pasta and salads, but they know if they make 10 to 15 percent of their daily calories nutrient-dense foods they’re going to be healthier.
Q: Who are these customers?
A: Our prime customers are women between 25 and 60.
Q: Is there concern that these are trendy foods right now that could eventually go out of style? For instance, does anyone buy acacia any more? Or carob? What ever happened to carob?
A: (Laughs) Are almonds trendy? I don’t think so. But I see your point. The trick is knowing what people want to eat a few years before they do – or before Dr. Oz. I have been able to make those predictions. Then the biggest challenge is supply.
Q: Are you constantly looking for the newest super foods to stay relevant?
A: I search the world over. I’m pretty sure we’ve identified two new ones.
Q: Really? What are they?
A: Well, we’re not quite as secretive as Apple, but we’re still in the research phase and not ready to make any announcements. Keep checking our Facebook page.
Q: What’s the end goal for Nutiva?
A: To see Monsanto bankrupt. We would like to create an organic, non-GMO world, even if customers go elsewhere to buy it. If they want to buy it from us, that’s great, too. But we have plenty of business. The important thing is to change the supply chain and make it more organic and more healthful.
By Julie Rath, on Fri Sep 13, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET When was the last time you updated your headshot? What, you don’t have a headshot? No problem…read on for how to plan it, what to wear, and how to get it done with aplomb.
Having a good headshot never seems urgent until something like a speaking engagement comes up or someone is writing a profile of you, and then all of a sudden you really need one. Even though this may not be at the top of your to-do’s, trust me, people are checking you out online — and forming impressions of you based on what they see. And thanks to Google Images, any public pictures of you are going follow you around long-term. Below are 9 tips for getting headshots that would make your mama proud:
1) Wear solid colors as much as possible. If you’re wearing a patterned tie, make sure the pattern is not too busy or large in scale, since that will draw attention away from what people want to see to begin with — that handsome face of yours. Showtime’s CEO Matt Blank above gets it right with his clean, crisp look.
2) Speaking of color, make sure the shade you have on flatters your skin tone. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to wear the right colors. (You can figure this out by having a color analysis done — contact me for info, or more loosely by asking people whose judgement you trust what colors they think you look best in.)
Bonus tip: If you have light colored eyes, play them up by wearing a color that matches them.
3) Get your hair cut 5-7 days before photos. That’s about the right amount of time for a new cut to “settle” in, especially if your hair stylist tends to cut you very short (sometimes they do this to make the cut last longer if you have trouble fitting appointments in). You can also get it cut closer to the date of your headshot, and let him or her know you’ll be taking photos within the next couple of days and not to go too short.
4) Choose your outfit carefully depending on the purpose of your photos. For example, the whole idea of a business headshot is to show people that you’re trustworthy, professional and approachable yet self-assured. If you’re in a field like finance or law, go with a suit and tie. For more creative and casual fields like advertising or technology, you can wear a blazer and dress shirt, or just the dress shirt. Whatever you plan on wearing, bring a few options to the shoot.
5) Consider the background. For something traditional in feel, have your photos taken in-studio. For a more interesting vibe that’s still business-friendly, do them on location in your office — if you’re an executive, you might place yourself in front of a window overlooking the city, or stand powerfully in your office. If your photos are for personal use, or your industry is more casual, go outside and shoot in a park or in front of a cool background. See the image above of Jay Penske or my client Chris’s “after” photo for examples. Once you know what background your photos will be shot against, be sure that the colors you’re wearing don’t blend into that.
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Julie Rath: How to Get Killer Headshot Photos
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Sep 11, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET I remember in my high school psychology class learning that ages 40-55 were the most “productive years.” (I hope that has since been adjusted to 45-60. But I digress.)
The theory goes that we spend our first 20-25 years getting educated and the next 15-20 mastering a trade or profession and then achieve at our work at the highest levels during that next phase (40-55) because we are finally “ready” and adequately “prepared.”
I am now age 50 and can report (at least in my case) that theory is at least half true. Maybe even 60% true.
But what about the other 40% that makes these years the “productive years?”
I think the other 40% of the cause of our spike in productivity is the looming sense of our own mortality.
At around age 40 we realize we don’t have the luxury to wait until we can produce the perfect concerto, write the best selling novel, deliver the life-changing lecture, launch the brilliant new business idea, or are finally ready to manage like a CEO case study before “going for it.” At age 40 perfection stops being our teacher and starts being our nemesis. And so we just start producing whatever we can and realize, to our surprise, it is better than we expected and others don’t notice the deficiencies (or at least don’t notice them as prominently as we feared.)
 It is not that we have reached a point in our careers where we have finally matured or ripened to an ideal level where we can now produce at prodigious levels. Rather, we have reached the point in the game of our life where we either put some points on the board or risk being shut out.
It reminds me in football games of the final minutes when teams coming from behind go into their “Hurry Up Offense.”
These teams may not have scored a single point in the first half, but in the “Hurry Up Offense” they may post 14 points in 5 minutes. They must be in what psychologists call “Their most productive time of the game,” right? Or maybe they are simply playing against the clock. Or both. About 60% and 40%.
I think it is both.
So now…I am ready to start my day. “Huddle up. Wide receiver go for first down. On one. Break!”
By Erica and Matt Chua, on Mon Sep 9, 2013 at 1:30 PM ET After spending nearly three years on the road, we look back on all that we put up with to save a dollar. Were all the long bus rides and sleeping at airports worth it to keep the expenses in check?
HE SAID…
You’ll never hear me claim that there is a better way to travel than budget travel. Getting as close to the locals’ spending as possible is the best way to understand how their life is…and isn’t that why to travel? Not only the experiences, but also the differences between experiences in different places are enlightening. Exposing yourself to where the locals eat, stay and play will teach you more about a place than a tour ever would.
If I wanted something easy and comfortable I’d try to have that at home, not in some distant land. Why would I put my money towards temporary comfort instead of investing in permanent comfort? At home I want the most comfortable things possible, but on the road I want the most locally authentic experiences possible.
This does create some problems though. It’s caused us to end up in some places where I was deathly allergic to things. It’s led us to some pretty dirty places. It’s made us terribly sick. The romantic idea of living like a local is much better than it is in reality.
Here is one great example. We thought we had scored a great deal on a place to stay in Seoul, in a student building, on AirBnB. The listing made it clear that it could sleep two, evenings were quiet times, and there was free rice. They had me at the price, but I fell in love with the idea of free rice. See the photo above? That’s how we slept for three nights. On the fourth day I ran into the building manager, the same person who had checked us in, and he asked how we were sleeping. I responded that we were doing fine. Then he asked the key question, “would you like another mattress?” Why yes we would! How had he failed to mention this earlier, such as when the two of us checked in?
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Erica and Matt Chua: Budget Travel Gripes
By Saul Kaplan, on Mon Sep 9, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET A friend asked me this week, what is the single most important thing holding our economy back? Without hesitation I said our psychology is bad and negativism is getting in the way. We have allowed cynicism to slow progress, growth, and innovation. I am as cynical as anyone. Here in New England we are born with a well-developed cynical streak. In my home state of Rhode Island we have taken the art of cynicism to entire new heights. I am convinced we won’t climb out of this economic mess until we become more confident in our selves, our communities, and our opportunities. Psychology matters. A strong innovation economy creating higher wage jobs result from the decisions made every day by organization leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the sum total of these decisions on the margin to hire one additional employee or to invest one additional dollar which determine the trajectory of our economy. While many factors influence these choices in the end it comes down to psychology or confidence. We must find a way to move beyond our cynicism.
The imperative is to unleash the animal spirits. John Maynard Keynes had it right in his book, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, when he described animal spirits as the emotion which influences human behavior measured in terms of consumer confidence. Keynes got the math right. Positive activities depend on spontaneous optimism rather than mathematical expectations. Our decisions to do something positive can only be taken as the result of animal spirits, a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction, and not as the outcome of a weighted average of quantitative benefits multiplied by quantitative probabilities. Amen.
Keynes stood on the shoulders of earlier philosophers who also asserted that psychology matters. David Hume, one of the most important historical contributors to Western philosophy, has been credited with laying the foundation for cognitive science. In his seminal work, A Treatise of Human Nature, Hume lays out his framework for a naturalistic science of man that examines the psychological basis of human nature. His views in 1739 were heretical and in direct opposition to the prevailing views of the rationalists, exemplified by Descartes. Hume concluded that belief rather than reason governed human behavior. I love Hume’s famous quote, “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.”
 Before accusing me of being Polyanna-ish (optimist for sure) or having my head stuck in a history book (only partially stuck) consider what is going on around you. Everybody is pointing at everybody else. It’s the government’s fault. It’s the big bad industrial complex. There isn’t enough resource to go around. Democrats and Republicans are beating each other up incessantly while nothing changes (a pox on both of their houses). Change is hard. Life isn’t fair. And so it goes. Add your barriers and excuses here. OK, Can we move beyond admiring the problem now? How we love to admire the problem. Enough already.
We have an incredible opportunity in front of us. We must overcome our cynicism and bring passion to the fore as we optimistically try more stuff. Sure there are challenges but we live in a technology rich era with an unprecedented opportunity to enable purposeful networks focused on solving the big issues of day. How about starting with health care, education, energy, and economic prosperity? If we are waiting for institutions to lead the way we are going to be waiting a very long time. Clay Shirky has it right in his recent books, Here Comes Everybody and Cognitive Surplus. We are connected, communicating, and leveraging social media platforms in powerful ways. Collectively we are blessed with a cognitive surplus that is huge, obvious, and accessible to solve real world problems and redefine how value is created, shared, and captured. We just need to get on with it. It is time to stop admiring the problem. The biggest obstacle in our way is a negative psychology and lack of confidence to act. Time to unleash the animal spirits.
By Jeff Smith, on Tue Sep 3, 2013 at 2:00 PM ET Do you find yourself unable to check your office work at the door when you get home? A new survey reveals nearly all employed Americans do work-related tasks during their free time. We talk to people who just can’t seem to disconnect from their work.
Originally aired on HuffPostLive, September 3, 2013
GUESTS INCLUDE:
- Contributing RP Jeff Smith (New York , NY) Professor of Politics & Advocacy at The New School
- Debra Shigley (Atlanta, GA) Creator & Host, “Deb’s Kitchen”
- Jeff Kreisler (Hoboken, NJ) Comedian and Author
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Sep 2, 2013 at 12:20 PM ET Happy Labor Day to the 83% of the population who knows today is Labor Day.
Happy Memorial Day to the 15% who think it is Memorial Day.
And Happy Sunday to the 2% who believe today is Sunday.
By Saul Kaplan, on Mon Sep 2, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET  Being an innovator is both a blessing and a curse. Innovators are constantly seeking to improve things by finding a better way. A questing personality is a blessing providing innovators with a source of personal pride, accomplishment, and exhilaration. At the same time an innovator’s job is never done. There is always a better way. A sense of perpetual incompleteness and never being satisfied torments most innovators I know. I think this blessing and curse dichotomy is the secret sauce that makes innovators tick. It motivates innovators to take personal risks, collaborate with unusual suspects to find a missing piece, and jump through incredible hoops seeking a better way. Innovators wouldn’t have it any other way.
There is always a better way. It doesn’t matter how innocuous or small a thing from everyday life it is. You can always tell an innovator because they fixate on addressing small things with the same child-like enthusiasm they readily deploy to large complex societal problems. It’s the little things that often get innovators the most riled up. I learned this lesson the hard way and share one of many personal examples. After a long career as a road warrior strategy consultant I found myself at home trying to figure out what I was going to do next in my career. One morning I came downstairs and opened the cupboard that housed breakfast cereal for our three children and found it filled with twelve half-opened cereal boxes. You know the one I am talking about. Tell me you can’t relate to this important dilemma. I fell into the trap and loudly proclaimed, isn’t there a better way to organize this cereal. The response was immediate and resounding, thanks for the input, now go find something else to do, preferably out of the house! I know my wife is groaning reading this thinking, no, not the cereal box story again. Can’t you come up with a new story for heaven’s sake? P.S. regarding the cereal box story, the children and the cereal boxes have left home and I miss them both terribly. Innovators can’t help themselves, no matter how small the challenge, there is always a better way and they are driven to find it.
It’s not just the small things. If you are like me it bugs you enough to create new solutions in your head while stuck in an avoidable traffic jam when the information was knowable, when one part of the health care system has no clue of your experience with the rest of it, and when one government agency has no visibility to your history with the agency right next door. Don’t even get me started on education because it just makes me cry. It is inconceivable to me how we have let our public school systems atrophy to their current state. All of the innovators I know are outraged, screaming for transformational change, and willing to roll up their sleeves and help design a better way.
Innovators are constantly deconstructing life experience and coming up with new approaches to delivering value and solving every day problems. It is rarely about inventing anything new. Innovators often solve problems with existing technology and by recombining capabilities in new configurations to deliver value in a better way. Innovators are blessed to see a bigger picture enabling a larger palette from which to paint new solutions.
Innovators are also cursed by never being satisfied. The job is never done. Celebrations are muted and short-lived as innovators move on to explore the next better way. Ignorance is never bliss to an innovator. There is always a missing piece of information that torments innovators and keeps them up at night until they find it. And when they think they have a bead on it two more compelling questions arise and the constant quest continues. Innovators are generally anxious people who feed their anxiety by moving toward the edge where the best knowledge flows are. Innovators are perpetually exhausted not wanting to miss an opportunity to advance an idea, connect with someone who can help, or find that missing piece of information. It is a curse that innovators gladly accept and have reconciled themselves to live with. Innovators are never satisfied and incredibly hard on themselves, but they are convinced in their souls, seeking a better way is both noble and right.
Being an innovator is both a blessing and a curse. I am grateful to hang out with so many incredible innovators hoping that the blessing part will rub off on me. I already have the curse part covered.
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