98 Pound Name Dropping Weakling

Published on May 27, 2009 by in Brainzooming - All Posts, Career, Collaboration, Communication, Implementation, Strategy, Tools

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We all name drop at times since it can be useful in getting attention and pushing someone to do what you want them to do. There’s just one problem. Name dropping makes you appear weak.

It says to the other party that you realize you don’t have the clout, logic, or savvy to convince them why they should work with you and address your request. It also says you realize this too – why else would you have to name drop? And based on a recent example where someone dropped my name without consulting me, it can also result in cutting off your support if the person whose name you dropped gets surprised by it.

Here’s a better alternative: Talk with the person whose name you might drop upfront and ask him or her for their suggestions on how to get cooperation. They might be able to:

  • Suggest an alternative way to manage the situation.
  • Personally intervene on behalf of the request.
  • Provide some other way to show their support.

This approach means a little more work, but it’s an investment in YOUR effectiveness in building relationships.

 

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Saturday Special – Pushing Your Limits

Published on May 23, 2009 by in Brainzooming - All Posts, Career, Innovation, Quotes, Twitter

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This is a screen grab from my Tweetdeck this morning. The first three tweets of the day themed up nicely, so I wanted to share them, including the live link for the Brainzooming post on “Shooting for the Moon.” Have a great weekend!

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Share Your Complete Message in a Powerpoint Headline

Published on May 20, 2009 by in Brainzooming - All Posts, Communication, Insights, Performance, Tools

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If you have to create a written report in PowerPoint, here’s a good discipline to enforce on yourself for clarity and flow:

Write the headlines on each page in such a way that if they were the only things read, your audience would get the report’s main messages.

Since many readers will do little more than a quick scan of the document, this approach creates a greater likelihood you’ll get your points across to both skimmers and those who do spend more time with the report.

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Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Talking Yourself Up

Published on May 19, 2009 by in Brainzooming - All Posts, Branding, Career, Communication, Events, Marketing, Strategy

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After last week’s “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” presentation for the AAFKC “Get Charged Up” Symposium, I was talking with one attendee about the strategic challenge of successfully promoting oneself. Even for people who are great at successfully marketing other people, products, and services, selling yourself can be a daunting task.

In response to her question about strategies for how to approach it, here are three suggestions:

  • Do Some Homework – Invest time defining a personal category by exploring your distinctive talents and developing a strategy for how you can accentuate them to set yourself apart.
  • Ask a Fan for a Recommendation – I wrote a sincere, very favorable recommendation letter for a long-time business partner recently. His response, “(This guy) seems to be everything I doubt about myself.” Everything in my letter was true, but it was a lot easier for me to say it than it was for him. You may be in the same situation. If you are, reach out to someone who understands your skills and can succinctly package them in a recommendation letter. Ideally, it will provide the basis for words and phrases you can use to promote yourself.
  • Get Professional Help – If you’re struggling with a resume, consider having a professional assist in preparing it. Select someone who puts you through the discipline of answering questions about your responsibilities and justifying the results you delivered. Being forced to think through answers to these types of in-depth questions is of value all by itself. - Mike Brown

The Brainzooming Group helps make smart organizations more successful by rapidly expanding their strategic options and creating innovative plans they can efficiently implement. Email us at brainzooming@gmail.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to see how we can help make your strategic thinking and brand planning more productive!

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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24 Hours of Innovation – Student Challenge: Music and Entertainment Meet the Auto Industry

Published on May 18, 2009 by in Brainzooming - All Posts, Collaboration, Communication, Events, Innovation, Tools, Twitter

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Midnight on Friday, Nick Demey from The Board of Innovation direct messaged me on Twitter, asking if I could review two student presentations as part of 24 Hours of Innovation. The assignment had been to advance 3 new automotive concepts based on business models from the music/entertainment business.

One presentation was from a US team, the other from a Belgian team. I’d recommend taking a look at both. Pay particular attention to three lessons on presenting new ideas demonstrated by the Belgian students:

  1. They show their mindmap – great for highlighting the transformative variables and range of ideas considered.
  2. A single slide upfront contained short descriptions of all three concepts – a helpful reference to understand what was coming.
  3. Each business model concept featured both text and visual representations – this provided a deeper sense of the concepts.

We can all learn from these techniques that make a document more likely to receive executive review. Thanks Nick for allowing me to participate in this hour of the 24 Hours of Innovation!


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Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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10 Ways to Learn with Fewer Training Dollars

Published on May 13, 2009 by in Brainzooming - All Posts, Career, Collaboration, Communication, Twitter

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Training budgets get cut in challenging times. Yet it’s critical to continue growing and developing. If training budget dollars aren’t available for traditional training though, what can you do personally? Here are 10 ways to continue expanding your expertise when many others aren’t:

  • Select a topic and develop a presentation you can deliver at conferences. You’ll typically get a reduced rate or free registration as a presenter. Contact conferences you’re interested in attending and pitch your presentation well in advance.
  • Find out if your company has online training. This is a great way to improve your understanding of business basics in-house with minimal investment.
  • Participate in free webinars. One upside of today’s economy is the large number of companies offering free webinars. I’ve participated in several this year and haven’t come across a clunker yet.
  • Take a community college course. Our local college has an unbelievable array of business and professional development courses. They’re affordable, often feature multiple sessions, and scheduled for people who work.
  • Attend local association seminars. In a city of any size, there are likely multiple daily options for professional learning opportunities at breakfasts, lunches, or dinner meetings. These professional training sessions may be sponsored by associations, Chambers of Commerce, or even private businesses. For a nominal personal investment, these types of sessions are a way to learn and network cost effectively without travel.
  • Ask if outside partners will open their training to you. A consultant had its in-house presentation designer do a session for us on constructing a presentation’s logic flow. It was fantastically valuable and something we couldn’t have paid to attend. This could be a value-added opportunity for both: you get education and usually, a more educated client is a better client.
  • Get on Twitter – develop a network involved in your field, participate in chat groups, and network for new ideas. Twitter is the richest, most diverse interaction opportunity I’ve come across. In a short time, it’s exposed me to many smart people around the world eager to share information, perspectives, and links.
  • Share your own expertise. Whether it’s presenting, writing, or answering questions on LinkedIn, you always learn by teaching. Sharing knowledge forces you to be on top of your game, plus trading perspectives with your students exposes you to new learning also.
  • Agree to a sales call. I’m emphatic about not spending time with salespeople when there’s no real opportunity for them. Recently, I’ve started to relax that. After an admonition that a meeting implies no near-term buying intent, I’ve invested time with potential vendors eager to share new techniques. The downside is dealing with follow-on calls.
  • Learn from others through effective networking. With any of the previous ideas where you’re interacting with people, it’s an opportunity to offer value, share expertise, and build a reputation for helping others.

Give any one or a combination of these a try, and you’ll definitely realize some of the most cost-effective learning benefits available.

 

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Leaving Blog Comments – 4 Quick Steps

Published on May 12, 2009 by in Blogging, Brainzooming - All Posts, Communication

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Blog comments are a great way to get started in creating social media content without starting a blog of your own. Over time, leaving blog comments can provide the basis for creating posts on your own blog. If you’re just getting started in actively exploring social media, however, the steps of leaving blog comments may not be completely clear. There are four basics on leaving blog comments applicable in most situations:

  • To leave a comment, click where it says “0 (or some number of) comments” at the bottom of a post. Clicking will open a dialogue box where you can type and submit your comment.
  • “Thanks, this post was helpful” is a nice comment, but unfortunately it sounds like the types of comments spammers leave. To make sure you’re comment clears it through a spam filter, add something of relevance which indicates you actually read the post. Expand on, challenge, or clarify a point that was made. Your comment doesn’t have to be the length of a blog, but a few lines and a reference to the original post is important.
  • Identify yourself with your name. You don’t have to sign up for anything to leave a comment here, but it’s great if you at least leave your name so follow up comments can be directed to you.
  • If you’re really uncomfortable commenting, go ahead and send the blogger an email. Anything that provides some type of feedback and breaks the virtual silence is a positive.

Writing a blog can be a pretty isolated experience. Take 30 seconds to break through and leave a hint you visited and enjoyed what was there. It will make a blogger’s day!

P.S. If you’re a blogger, visit this Chris Brogan post for a great overview of approaches to try and generate comments.

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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