Having good conversations? Being productive? If not, do you know why?
This slideshow is based on Failure to Communicate: How Conversations Go Wrong and What You Can Do to Right Them by Holly Weeks.
http://hbr.org/web/slideshows/difficult-conversations-nine-common-mistakes/10-slide
“If you just set out to be liked, you will be prepared to compromise on anything at anytime, and would achieve nothing.” -Margaret Thatcher
Today I connected with Christy Liu, Founding Partner of Living Breathing and Co-founder of Wanderfly. I am so very excited to be able to share our Dialogue with you all here. Christy and I met at Young & Rubicam in New York where we were both strategic planners. Strategy plays a major role in both entities- in the 17 minute Dialogue, we discuss the strategic backdrop of Wanderfly and the unique strategic freedom granted through the business model of Living Breathing.
AlixCompany with Dialogue_Christy_Liu
Specifically, the Dialogue flow includes:
1) How would you describe Wanderfly?
2) What would you say is the best part about being a Founder of Wanderfly? Where do you and your team see it going in the future?
3) Lots of folks are talking about the new dynamic and opportunity for consultancies today; how would you describe the actual space given Living Breathing and your client experiences thus far?
4) How would you describe the Living Breathing client?
5) As an entrepreneur, are their words of wisdom you can share with others given your experiences and lessons learned?
Over the last few days I’ve been researching adding a telephone line. The ideal for me is to have a 512 number in addition to my 917 number that goes to my ‘all location’ Blackberry. I learned from Verizon that I would need to purchase a new line and a new phone. I could then forward the number to my 917 number for only $30 something a month (plus the cost of a new phone). I called Time Warner and same sort of deal- new phone plan and I could forward the new 512 number.
Today, was decision day. I called Verizon to give the go mentioning to the rep everything that I needed- to add a new phone line with a 512 area code. She repeated, “so you are looking to replace your 917 number?” NO! This was not what I was asking to do — surely, there had to be a better way.
Insert Google Voice. My search for simple led me to the simple place — Google, where I discovered Google Voice. With the click of one or two buttons I was given a 512 number. With a few more clicks, I forwarded that number to my Blackberry where the 917 also lives and activated the voicemail option. In tinkering with it some today, I found a very neat feature – text voicemail. WHAT A TIME SAVER. I now get voicemail messages (all – both 917 and 512 number) delivered to my text box. No more wondering what the lingering message says when I can’t get to it right away …
Duncan Watts, principal research scientist at Yahoo Research, mentions that marketers may get better results if they reach out to a large number of “ordinary influencers” rather than one high-profile person on Twitter. The article’s premise surrounds the influential prowess of celebrities (an interesting read) and refers to a study conducted by Yahoo Research (a VERY interesting study).
In the Yahoo study, Everyone’s an Influencer, Watts mentions bloggers were responsible for 1.36 million tweets – or 272 tweets per account; the media was responsible for 5.1 million tweets, or 1,023 tweets per account. And “ordinary” people on Twitter were responsible for 244 million tweets, or 6.1 tweets per account.
Lined up, for reading convenience, that’s:
Tweets Tweets/Account
Bloggers 1.36 mil 272
Media 5.1 mil 1,023
Ordinary 244 mil 6.1
This quote from the article stood out to me: “It’s better to trigger many small cascades. Ordinary influencers are promising. Grind away [in] a very systematic manner.”
The article continues: … “messages travel on Twitter in much the same way that information was disseminated more than 50 years ago. Watts pointed to research in the 1950s by Elihu Katz and Paul Lazarfeld; they found there’s a “two-step flow of information,” whereby opinion leaders and influential people were more likely to be exposed to media and then disperse that information through the social strata. “There was no Twitter. There were no followers. Yet they used language that’s very amenable to Twitter today,” Watts said.
“The lesson for marketers? Give up on predicting individual events… focus on the typical event size. Try to optimize many, many times.”
Today, in the Wall Street Journal via Twitter, I read a piece by Katherine Rosman titled, ‘When Twitter Gets in the Way of Real Life‘. It’s a great read in that it speaks to the private nature of Twitter in relationships. It starts, “There are certain relationship flashpoints: smoking, for instance, or religion, or money. And then, these days, you have to add technology.”