What moved you in 2007? What seared its way into your grey matter or opened up a new window of thought? A right-on or an oh-yeah reaction? Follow the links below to to find out 7 of my starred items from 2007.
rengen
Show Me Me, Show Me You
Who do you want to see when you look at a new product, a new web site, a new community organization? You want to see you! And you want to see someone else. Someone with a name. A story. Seth Godin points to the frivolous but intoxicating site I’m In Like With You in his post “Learning From Flirting.”
What can we learn from this? It’s what the 2.0 movement has been saying for a while now: let the users speak! They want to! They love it! We love it. And ultimately…whether it looks pretty and is palatable in the old school sense or not…it is what is on the platter for the users we say we want to reach. Are you ready for it?
A Must-Read for A New-Breed
Are you tired of working harder and getting no feedback to help move you forward? Are you over the ladder-climbing mentality that was set by your predecessor? Ready to give your boomer-boss the bump? Then here is your holy grail. Penelope Trunk lays it on out in a fashion that few “personal success” books do in The Brazen Careerist: The New Rules For Success. It does not get any clearer than this. It’s the book that reads like a blog–and could likely have as much impact! Trunk reminds us that it IS about YOU and YOU do have the right to be successful and YOU can make positive waves while at the same time actually having a life that has meaning to YOU while contributing to the success of your company or organization. This is the book for a new breed of leaders and trail blazers.
Get this book. Read it. Just imagine that it is hardback laptop.
Quote to get you jumping:
“”…when you’re starting a trend, often you look less like a trendsetter and more like a freak.”
Ahhhh, she had me at freak.
Are you a diagrammer?
How does sentence diagramming and looking into the future of vital libraries and civic organizations connect? Before you read what Kitty Florey says below from her book Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog (all about the flooky practice and history of sentence diagramming and how it affects–or not–our lives today) think about this: Writer’s write. Leaders lead. Visionaries envision.
And diagrammers draw diagrams.
Which of these do you aspire to be? Which is active? Diagramming (analyzing or dissecting) a practice or an organization or a job doesn’t create any energy or vitality in it. It simply dissects it. The spirit is in the doing. Innovation is doing. Consulting, studying, dissecting is, well, consulting , studying and dissecting.
Reading Florey’s book reminds me that dissecting takes away the fluid nature–the very spirit–of language, just like peeling apart the layers of a practice to “make it more innovative” stalls out innovation all together. You can’t create a diagram for innovation. The Ren Gen knows this. Real innovators know this. Diagrammers haven’t caught on to this just yet. Are you diagramming your work, your practices too much? If so, consider being the innovation you’re seeking out instead.
“Among the people I’ve talked to about it, the consensus seems to be that learinng diagramming may have helped us to understand the functions of words, to think more logically about language, and maybe event to write more correclty. But it didn’t help us write well.”
Analyzing doesn’t help us innovate. Doing does.
Power & Stumble
Looking for an image to illustrate a post earlier tonight, I came across this image in flickr. It stopped my keystrokes in their trax. OK, what does this say to you?
Who’s got the power?
Plug it into the Web, the Real World, the Virtual, the Smart, the Keyed-in, the Old School, the Ren Gen?
What we stumble upon is sometimes worth A thousand words…
Meteorologist 2.0
Recently, a familiar and friendly face on the news and weather scene in Charlotte, NC virtually disappeared overnight. After almost 10 years as the chief meteorologist for TV stationWCNC, the local celebrity was abruptly told that her contract was not being renewed. Read the full story here.
That was in July. Just over 2 months later and Terri Bennett has rebounded in a grand way. Because of a no-compete clause in her contract she is barred from joining the news team of any regional TV stations. Weighing her options, she obviously thought fast and acted just as fast. By launching her own web site, www.terribennett.com, she is able to bring the world to her doorstep. This is a true 2.0/ RenGen solution to a problem. In the year that Bennett waits to regroup and sit out the no compete clause, she is able to share her obvious love of all-things-weather, concern for the environment and even gardening. Her web site is layered with her personal passions and allows her to bring her own voice to what she does. What a calling card.
Check out the follow up story that ran in Saturday’s paper. A quick scan of the dozens and dozens of online notes of support not only show Bennett’s obvious popularity, it speaks of the connections and follow-up the community has with what they believe in…and, of course, the point of this post–don’t mess with a smart meteorologist who knows how to use her Web 2.0 skills.
Renaissance Rising
We’re no longer talking about a revolution contends author and researcher Patricia Martin. And she’s found much research and heart-and-head searching to back up her intuitions. It’s a renaissance that is on the rise and it will transform the way we think, work and interact with one another.
The Renaissance Generation is emerging. Martin calls it the RenGen for short. The RenGen is not about a new breed of Flower Children or a temporal artsy movement. It’s about “an emerging strata of enlightened individuals who are hungry for ideas and ways to express them. These ideas include art, culture, social causes and, yes, even business.
The concept of the RenGen is sweeping the nation and grabbing the attention of those interested in what’s going on in the world as well as those that run some of our major cities. Martin believes that the “average Joe” is smarter and “less average” than he’s been given credit for—especially as the RenGen rises.
What does RenGen mean for your organization, library or city? Get smart and find out. The RenGen is ready to co-create with you, to speak their minds and to exchange information and ideas and allow for a new, friendlier, more creative place to live and prosper.
Are you ready for the RenGen?
Find out more by listening to an interview with Patricia Martin that aired today on the brink of Chicago being named a true “RenGen” City.
Yes to Know 
