Sharing is Good

The Sharing Economy
Fast Company, May 2011

The sharing economy is upon us. As people try to find more ways of not accumulating more stuff and attempt to make their carbon footprint smaller, the sharing economy will be a benefit to all. Social media will help to propel it. People are sharing things like, bikes, cars, office space, even their own homes and there are companies out there helping these people connect. The best example would be Zipcar. Instead of owning a car you can subscribe to Zipcar and use their car on demand. According to Lisa Gansky, author of “The Mesh,” cars are used on average 8% percent of the time. So for the other 92% of the time, it’s sitting idle, parked on the driveway eating up money and taking up space. I’m totally behind this new economy, it makes perfect sense. Why not share what you have with someone who needs it; it’s a win-win situation. Insights from the article are:

• Trust is definitely a factor in sharing stuff with people you don’t know. That’s where social media comes into play. Referred to as data exhaust, “the trail that you leave as you engage with others on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter...and beyond...” which will define your credibility and will be the deciding factor of whether someone wants to share their stuff with you.
• If you have a “sharing” business idea that you’re incubating, get moving on it now. The market is ripe and VC’s are open to and backing “sharing” ventures.
• Just about anything can be shared, but not everything. Punsri Abeywickrema, founder of Rentalic, and online rental company, has concluded through his own research that “shareable objects had to fit specific criteria: They must cost more than $100 but less than $500, be easily transportable, and be infrequently used. Consider this before go before a panel of VCs.

Some sharing sites from the article:

• Freecylce.org - Give your old stuff to someone who can use it.
• AirBnB.com - Rent a room, a house and even a yacht.
• Liquidspace.com - Find workspace or a meeting place.

Read the complete list at Fast Company.

Learn the Art of Enchantment

Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions
by Guy Kawasaki

Admittedly, I was filled with skepticism reading this book. I just wasn’t convinced that a book could teach genuine enchantment and not be self-serving, but in the end I was enchanted. I picked up the book for two reasons, one, I loved the origami butterfly (backstory included in the book) on the cover and two, it’s by Guy Kawasaki, who I follow on Twitter. Guy defines enchantment as causing "...a voluntary change of hearts and minds and therefore actions. It is more than manipulating people to help you get your way. Enchantment transforms situations and relationships. It converts hostility into civility. It reshapes civility into affinity. It changes skeptics and cynics into believers." So, here are the top three take-aways that totally enchanted me:

1. The table of contents is setup to be a to do list. So it tells you what each chapter will cover and at the same time it tells you how to achieve enchantment step by step. You can keep referring back to it like how-to guide. Each chapter ends with a personal story, written by someone else, illustrating how that person was enchanted by someone or something. One person tells how Disney had enchanted him and his bride when they were on their honeymoon. Someone had tried to break into their hotel room and hotel management refused to take action or show any compassion. Later that day, they had dinner on the Disney property and mentioned their story to the restaurant manager. A few minutes later, she returns and offers them a room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge at the same rate they were currently paying. Disney earned a customer for life.
2. There were two points in the chapter “How to Prepare” that really stood out with me. Clearly set your goals to let people know what you are trying to accomplish. Then share it with everyone - customers, stakeholders, employees. It’s hard to enchant someone if they don’t really get your service or product. Setting clear goals also establishes your likability and trustworthiness (covered in separate chapters). Next is to create a checklist, which touches my heart because  I love lists (how enchanting)! I use lists to breakdown a huge project, to organize my thoughts, to release the chaos in my head, but I digress. Checklists do three things: 1) it makes it easier for someone to take action 2) it communicates that you know how to get things done and 3) it shows progress and provides a feeling of accomplishment. As I mentioned in takeaway 1, the table of contents is designed to be a checklist. Sneaky!
3. A couple of chapters were devoted to technology and tells how to actually use them and provides some really great resources that you can use now. One thing he touched on relating to presentations is the 10-20-30 rule which states “make a ten-slide presentation in twenty minutes with no font smaller than thirty points.” How I wish more people knew this rule! Certainly a rule I will begin applying right away. On using Twitter: enchant by adding value to your followers by providing “informational links, manual engagement, and marketing promotions.” It’s okay to re-post old tweets because of the nature of Twitter, your post a minute ago will get pushed off the screen in a matter of seconds. Be heard and re-post.

There are many more take-aways, so I would recommend that you read the entire book and be ready to be enchanted.

If you’ve read the book, share your thoughts and maybe share a personal story of enchantment. 

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Two Experts Talk About Productivity

Being More Productive
An Interview with David Allen and Tony Schwartz by Daniel McGinn
May 2011 Harvard Business Review 

I am fanatic about finding efficient ways to do anything. Efficiency leads to greater productivitywhich leads to feeling good about completing projects. I own David Allen's book "Getting Things Done" and what initially drew me to it was the list making. Making lists brings pleasure to my life. I will admit, however, that David's approach became quite daunting and I felt I was spending too much time managing the lists than I was actually accomplishing my To Dos. As with many things, I took the ideas I loved and put them into practice. I had not heard of Tony Schwartz until I read this article, and now I'm a HUGE fan. His latest book is "Be Excellent at Anything" which I plan to read and will appear on Read-It. What I love is that he approaches productivity as the management of energy rather than time. You want to do your most important work or decision-making when you are at your peak energy levels.

Top three take-aways from this interview.

1. Both men have known of each other's works for years, but it was only recently that they actually met. It turns out that Tony started making lists of everything after learning of David's work and he also does the "most improtant task of the day first thing in the morning." As a result of learning of Tony's work, David is more aware of his energy cycles and actually takes a 20 minute power nap in the middle of the day. Nice!

2. About their techniques:

• Tony - There are four primary dimensions of energy: Physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. All four contribute to "sustainable high performance." This means you're not working yourself into the ground working 12 hour days with the awareness of managing the four dimensions.
• David - When you have a huge project, break it down into lists. Items on those lists can be further broken down into sub-lists and so on. The philosphy behind this is that you have a feeling of accomplishing even the smallest task which avoids energy drain. In other words, you aren't waking up at three in the morning wondering what needs to be done on "that" project because you know a few tasks have already been done towards completing it.

3. According to Tony, humans are not to be treated like machines. We have cycles of energy that we need to pay attention to in order to maintain peak performance. If you hit a wall at 3pm, like I do, don't try to do anything mentally challenging during that time. Tony illustrates this by saying, "…if a person works continuously all through th eday, she'll produce less than a person of equal talent who works very intensely for short periods and then recovers before working intensely again." Recovery is key. Take a nap, a walk, mediate, anything that will help you re-energize.

I enjoyed reading this article and gleaned lots of insight on their different approaches to productivty. Toward the end of the interview, Tony asks how long they had been talking. Allen promptly replies "85 minutes." Tony works in 90 minute cycles so his body was telling him that it was time for a break. They actually took a 10 minute break before continuing with the rest of the interview. This illustrates how both are very aware of time and that they do practice what they teach.

Links:
David Allen, Getting Things Done - http://www.davidco.com/
David Alen, GTD Blog - http://www.gtdtimes.com/
Tony Schwartz, The Energy Project - http://www.theenergyproject.com/blog/author/tony-schwartz
Tony Schwartz, HBR Blog - http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/

If you read this article, what are some of your thoughts on their approaches?

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