Well, That Didn't Take Long

Teaser in this morning's Washington Post

Afghanistan

Wavering on 2011 Withdrawal

Defense Secretary Robert M, Gates says it'll probably take two to three years to get all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan

I'm not surprised to see this, just surprised to see it so quickly. I wonder how long before we start hearing about the need for a bigger military buildup from others. Article here.

Picture Yourself Doing A Presentation...In Ten Years!

Here are some questions for you:

  • What does it mean for presentation training , NOW?
  • What are the skills we need to develop to be ready?
  • How to protect professional data?
  • How to deal with challenging  time zones? (you're in US, east coast , your team is spread between San Francisco, India and Europe )
  • Will pandemic diseases reduce dramatically the corporate travels?
  • How will the companies be able to pay the ecological and financial costs for travel expenses?
  • When will face to face meetings and presentations will really be essential?
  • Will physical PRESENCE become the ultimate luxury?

In a thought-provoking post Marion Chapsal suggests that we be thinking about what presentations need to become to reach the Milennial generation. Her quote from MilennialGeneration.org is that the approach for audiences of the future will be "optimistic, proactive, innovative, and it utilizes social media" I wish there were more speakers in Toastmasters thinking ahead like this.

Seth's Blog: Is it too late to catch up?

What if your organization or your client has done nothing?

What if they've just watched the last fourteen years go by? No real website, no social media, no permission assets. What if now they're ready and they ask your advice? And, by the way, they have no real cash to spend...

Here's a list of my top ten things to consider doing:

  • Use gmail to give every person in the organization that can read English an email address.
  • Use a free website creating tool or even Squidoo to build a page about your company. Nothing fancy, but list your locations, your people (with addresses) and make it clear you want to hear from people.
  • Start an email newsletter using Mad Mimi or Mail Chimp. Give the responsibility for the newsletter's creation and performance to one person and offer them a bonus if they exceed metrics in sign ups and in reducing churn.
  • Start a book group for your top executives and every person who answers the phone, designs a product or interacts with customers. Read a great online media book a week and discuss. It'll take you about a year to catch up.
  • Offer a small bonus to anyone in the company who starts and runs a blog on any topic. Have them link to your company site, with an explanation that while they work there, they don't speak for you.
  • Have the president post her (real) email address in every invoice and other communication the company sends out, asking people to write to her with comments or questions.
  • Start a newsletter for your vendors. Email them regular updates about what you're doing, what's selling and what problems are going on internally that they might be able to help you with.
  • Do not approve any project that isn't run on Basecamp.
  • Get a white board and put it in the break room. On it, have someone update: how many people subscribe to the newsletter, how many people visit the website, how many inbound requests come in by phone, how long it takes customer service to answer an email and how often your brand names are showing up on Twitter every day.
  • Don't have any meetings about your web strategy. Just do stuff. First you have to fail, then you can improve.
  • Refuse to cede the work to consultants. You don't outsource your drill press or your bookkeeping or your product design. If you're going to catch up, you must (all of you) get good at this, and you only accomplish that by doing it.

The problem is no longer budget. The problem is no longer access to tools.

The problem is the will to get good at it.

I'd like to see this advice used in more places than I can think.

Afghanistan, revisited

My hunch is that if Mr. Obama wants success in Afghanistan, he would be far better off with 30,000 more schools than 30,000 more troops. Instead, he’s embarking on a buildup that may become an albatross on his presidency.

Nicholas Kristof weighs in on the Afghanistan decision in this morning's New York Times. Will listen to Greg Mortenson, cited in this column, on the Diane Rehm show this morning.

Stroke Survey

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