Critical Thinking, Personal Reality, and the way we conduct ourselves

For decades corporations and businesses around the world have altered the way people interact. They have defined through political bureaucracy that meetings are places where nothing is accomplished, good ideas are ignored and the important creativity and independence within us is discarded in favor of political hierarchy. The power of individual thought and creative excellence has been discarded for the constant paycheck and mechanical corporate well being.

This is not how we want to live our lives. Sharing our ideas and passion with one another is essential to our very being. By not relaying our thoughts to the people we see on a daily basis, we are not interacting with them. We are treating them like transparent obstacles that hinder our own personal goals. The reality to this situation is that the very obstacles we view them as would not only move themselves if they new better- but that they may aid us in our own personal path and that we in return can aid them in reaching their goals as well.

Take heed friends.

Think * Communicate * Innovate

1. We are not machines. We breathe and feel. We imagine and dream. We have inspiration and aspiration.

2. Meetings are not places of declaration and presentation. They are places where humans of equal and unique knowledge can share ideas and apply innovative group thinking to a topic.

3. Group thinking is superior from individual thinking. It benefits from the realization and application of entire lifetimes worth of talent and experience.

4. Anyone who is part of the meeting is fundamentally important.

5. Being important as individuals, any idea they have is worthwhile to the group.

6. Looking someone in the eye and telling them what you really think of the idea is the most powerful tool you can offer.

7. Honesty of thought should not be mistaken as a motivation for support or dislike. Everything has pros and cons.

8. Being honest to those within the group is the only way you can be honest to yourself.

9. When asked for your opinion- put forth your mind, your feelings and your heart. We are all human and these things are part of every one of us.

10. Look at the faces of those you are speaking with.

11. The expression on their faces may not be what they feel.

12. Whatever you are talking about may not be the most important thing everyone needs to address. Everyone is human. Aside from business we all have personal lives.

13. Ask questions. Never take silence as a form of agreeance. People who are silent are following the lead of whoever is speaking. Make them talk. Ask them how they feel.

14. Recall what meetings were like when you were six years old. Our imagination and the power to think outside of the box are tools that many of us left behind with our childhood.

15. We want people to understand our ideas. Each of us is going to view the scene from a different angle and it’s vital that we all try to understand those unique perspectives.

16. Discussion is vital to understanding the entire picture. We all have questions. Don’t treat your friends, your co-workers and your associates like idiots.

17. Businesses that tell people what to think don’t want meetings. They want lecture halls and servants. If you respect an employee- you will listen to what they have to say.

18. Anonymous comment boxes shouldn’t be needed. You should treat employees like people and not slaves. They shouldn’t fear repercussions from giving an opinion.

19. Since when did working for a company mean that you had to keep the ideas you value most quiet?

20. We don’t want to have to form a special team to utilize a good idea. We understand that productivity is a good thing and we all want our careers to have a bright future.

21. Stop telling good people what to do and you may find out what great people can do.

22. If you ask a question. Don’t expect the truth. Demand it and don’t penalize us for telling everyone how it is.

23. Every time we get together in a meeting and you give us fluff, we simply leave thinking about the truth of the situation and what is being hidden.

24. All the secrets in our business aren’t secrets. Five different people have told us versions of the same story. If you can’t treat us with honesty, realize this is the fundamental reason our respect for you is faltering.

25. Meetings don’t have to be boring. We are people- not constructs. Encourage us to laugh and be happy and we’ll show you how to survive the worse of times.

26. United we stand. There is power in understanding one another and supporting our common goals as a single entity. Placing a select few above the unit rather than as part of a cohesive team jeopardizes the cohesiveness of the group.

27. When we sit in the same room together we are a community of people. We are not business people, just people. Talk to us as such.

28. We don’t like wasting our time anymore than you do. Tell us what you need and let us tell you what we need. Cooperation and teamwork require communication.

29. Meetings are between people and as such, we want to voice our concerns and our thoughts to other people. We don’t want to have a policy tell us how our ideas should be voiced and whether or not they are important enough to hear.

30. When we say something to you, listen to it and ponder the meaning we are conveying. Our actual voice may be subtle, but we are willing to scream our ideas from the rooftop if needed.

The History of Recruiting online

I always find it so interesting what information is hidden online and examining trends in the numbers.

Often when looking at various sites and recommending action to take I look at the history of the client’s site along with a review of various competitor sites. For this feat I take you to a great online tool = The WayBack Machine. It offers a free service to view changes to sites and allows you to go back and see how they appeared years ago.

For today’s voyage I am going to look at the recruiting giant Monster.com. From 2000 to 2005 there was a shift to the purpose of the site as they tried to navigate the changing structure of recruiting online. Originally it was designed to help job seekers find a great job with primary focus being on moving fairly detailed job description packages- but as years passed by the site slowly and surely became more focused with advertising in general.

Looking at the numbers for 03/04 vs. 03/05 (available from Monster in PDF)- Monster had 22,020,000 unique visitors that viewed 17.4 minutes a visit in 03/05 and 18,355,000 unique visitors viewing 20.5 minutes in 03/05. Page views remained almost identical- 27 per visitor in 05 and 28 per visitor in 04.

In twelve months the trend became more visitors looking at more ads rather than more time spent looking at jobs for visitors. Assuming a low cost per visit ad structure the difference became fairly significant from an ad revenue standpoint. But the lower time per visit also represents a shift in the quality of the time being spent looking at the *jobs*.

Were visitors simply uninterested or did they get lured away from the very purpose of the site by the advertising of some other service? At the cost of a hundreds of dollars per posting- you would believe that such a site would be trying to increase the value of the core product rather than detract from it with irrelevant advertising.

Creative Thinking

One of the noteworthy items I have seen in the past ten years revolves around the fact that a majority of businesses have focused effort on training employees to think critically and not creatively.

As the size of a company increases the trend to increase the critical thinking becomes more apparent within mainline employees. Indeed, rather than teach other employees to think out of the box the company goes through the process of defining specific creative “groups” such as marketing, graphics, and even certain executive boards. This compounds what I feel is a “corporate ideology” that produces stale work environments stripped of the emotional and creative energy we all thrive on.

Critical thinking often emphasizes on analysis, the ability to follow or create a logical argument, figure out options, define how efficient a path is and focus on the best one. Creative thinking focuses on creating new ideas, using the imagination, and brainstorming multiple solutions rather than only one. Creative thinking is (no pun intended) critical to a prospering business. If a business cannot change based upon the imagination and the very essence of the people using it’s products, then it finds a gap in each new culture change that becomes harder and harder to overcome.

Paycheck or Love?

One of the first things I always hear from clients being a consultant is negotiating fees. While negotiating fees is fairly common- the thrifty consumer market occasionally bears it’s teeth into the realm of profit vs quality. There are some industries where you can gauge specifically what you are getting, apples to apples. In the online world, especially in marketing and project design- there are never two individuals or teams with the same qualifications. Sure they may both know some of the same skills. One may prefer a specific way to do things….

 

The honest qualifier however- is intangible. Do they have talent? Do they have love? Do they want to do the project? Do they understand it?

 

Just like so many employers discover- there is a world of difference between someone who wants a job and someone who loves what they do. Price has little to do with the fact of whether or not a project will be completed on a hectic schedule or a last minute deadline. When looking around for the next employee- ask yourself if you want to rely on the need for a paycheck or the desire to do something they love. I’ll take working with someone in love with the job rather than someone in love with my paycheck any day. Fact of the matter is that if they enjoy what they do- I’ll get my money’s worth out of them regardless of what price I pay.

So many of us have established a resume profile through such sites as Monster.com looking for our next professional opportunity. With the click of a button our information becomes one of millions of useless electronic clutter and we have relatively no ability to control where that information goes or how it will be interpreted.

 

Blogging has created the ability for professionals around the world to reach out and share not only ideas, but inspiration as well. The ability to quickly publish detailed articles on the latest industry trends allows the “movers and shakers” of today’s online world to quickly touch base with industry experts around the world. Feedback is almost instantaneous sometimes and within hours a good piece of thinking or solid logic can cover the globe.

 

What can you do today?

 

When looking for a job, you should look at what you know and share that information. We all know that the world isn’t full of mind readers and we all know that the only way potential contacts will learn to respect your ideas and your ability is to share your insight with them. A few well written articles covering your experience in whatever industry you are in can quickly and surely identify you as a capable and knowledgeable professional.

Check out my Linked-in or Ziggs profile on the right.

I’ve been spending a good deal of time with clients in the past three months dealing with an excessive number of requests regarding the speed and variety of blog posts required to properly build a blog. With some creative thought amongst some of my wonderful peers, I’ve managed to assemble a few comrades in the blogosphere to offer up some new services to our clients.

I’m not entirely ready for the grand showcase, but we’ll soon be able to announce some of our hard work and move towards an even better solution for some of our blogging clients.

Ways to blog your way to traffic-

Post about current issues, and if possible give your post a controversial question. While it may seem to be okay to go left or right on an issue, many times it’s fundamentally important to drive yourself right down the center and pull in both sides. Blogs are created to encourage collaboration and commentary!

 

Post on other blogs, try to bring commentary to your own blog by visiting other blogs with similar themes and readerships. Take a look at the readership and don’t shy away from throwing in your viewpoint. Just remember that once you hit “submit” there will be dozens of eyes reading what you just wrote. Just like a good marriage, the phrase “for better or worse” will come into play and you’ll have to roll with the ups and downs of the responses you get. Just keep in mind, that unless you are rude- any commentary is good commentary.

 

Join other blog communities, if you find a blog with similar ideology and industry focus- volunteer to add some articles to the mix every now and then. Consider all the blogs of the world your soap-box and stand proudly on top of it. Be sure to talk about relevant issues on each blog.

I’m almost done with several white papers regarding social networking online. My experience with my NameReality.com project has presented many questions and the answers suddenly “appeared” overnight.