It’s almost Christmas, which for most people (those who celebrate Christmas at any rate) means spending time with family, eating too much, and, of course, eggnog. But for Jon and Tracy Morter of England, Christmas time means defeating Simon Cowell.

Jon and Tracy organized a Facebook Campaign which attracted nearly 1 million followers and helped launched Rage against the Machine’s 1992 hit, Killing in the Name, to the No.1 Christmas song in the U.K. They used Facebook to capitalize on young people’s growing unhappiness with cookie cutter pop, with which Cowell has become synonymous. Cowell’s new act, Joe McElderry, was heavily favored to reach the number 1 spot but was defeated thanks to Jon and Tracy’s campaign.

How perfect is this? Rage Against the Machine, the iconic anti-establishment group, defeating the pop establishment. (Some hardcore Rage fans may think it’s a little ironic that it was because of Facebook that this happened, but hey, I’m not going there). This is a great example of how tools like Facebook and Twitter can be used to make the voice of the people heard. These are tools which bring together like-minded people to share their opinions and have their voices heard. And, as seen here, they can actually cause change.

Must be something to do with this time of year — all the giving and such — because this post almost has a bit of Marxism to it. This may not be the proletariat rising up and over throwing the bourgeoisie, but hey, I’m sure Marx would be happy to not have to listen to Simon Cowell’s brand of music over the holidays.

Happy Holidays!

Tags: Carl Marx, Christmas, facebook, Joe Mcelderry, Jon and Tracy Morter, Rage Agains the Machine, Rypple, Simon Cowell, twitter

Community Marketing

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We’re going to be expanding our blog in the coming weeks to encompass several new areas. One of these will be Getting Things Done (GTD), a very popular approach to personal productivity. There is a lot of great GTD content out there to help you manage your day and increase your productivity. Here’s a list of 3 great blogs to get you started:

1. GTD Times is the blog of David Allen, the originator of GTD. You’ll find:

…personal experience with tools and GTD-supportive technology, as well as GTD tips, tricks and strategies to help each of us lead happier, healthier, and more successful lives.

Check out the GTD Times blog role to find other great GTD blogs

2. Did I get Things Done, by Andrew Mason, focuses on productivity, motivation and self-development.
3. 43 Folders by Merlin Mann.

…how to improve the quality of your career and life by managing your attention in a way that allows you to work your ass off on the creative projects that matter most to you.

I hope these are helpful! Stay tuned for our productivity tips coming soon.

Tags: 43 Folders, Andrew Mason, David Allen, Did I get Things Done, Getting Things Done, GTD, GTD Times, Merlin Mann, Productivity, Rypple

Community Marketing

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This week brings the ability to followup on a piece of feedback as many times as you want and to filter your feed to show only unanswered feedback requests.

Feedback Followup

What do you do if a piece of feedback is unclear? Maybe you’d like someone to elaborate on their advice? Only one problem: anonymous feedback makes following up a little difficult. Not any more! You can now followup on a piece of feedback as many times as you like: clarify what you didn’t understand, ask for more suggestions, or even just say thank you. Don’t worry! It’s still completely anonymous. Check out the exchange below in which I asked for feedback, received a response, and then followed up for more info. The identity of my adviser is never revealed.

Filter Your Feed

Your feed contains the feedback you’ve received and the questions you’ve asked. When you’re taking a minute to respond to feedback requests, you can filter your feed to only show the unanswered requests. This is a great way to help you respond to all your colleagues requests. Use the Give filter in your feed, then sort by Unanswered to see them bubble to the top.

Stay tuned for next weeks notes. Same bat channel, same bat time!

Tags: anonymous, clarify, feed, Feedback, Release Notes, reply, Rypple

Community Marketing

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You’ll advance your career if you can become more productive. Your managers will trust you with more important tasks because they’ll know you’ll get it done.

You can become more productive over time through repetition and practice, but there are also techniques you can learn that will have big increases on your productivity. I highly suggest you read up on some Getting Things Done materials, Tim Ferris’ Four Hour Work Week, or Dragos Roua’s Brilliantly Better blog.

Here’s a quick tip that will help you become more productive from Peter Bregman’s post An 18-minute Plan for Managing Your Day:

STEP 1 (5 Minutes) Set Plan for Day. Before turning on your computer, sit down with a blank piece of paper and decide what will make this day highly successful.

Computers are distracting. Figure out what you need to do before you check your email, Facebook, and Twitter. Many an hour have been lost to Facebook, Twitter, and crossword puzzles…(not by me of course, but I’ve been told these things are distracting).

Lay out your to-do list from highest priority to lowest. Set a time limit for yourself to complete these tasks. You’ll be surprised how focused you can become from a self-imposed time limit.

As I’m writing this post I closed my email and chat client, because I have a bad habit of constantly checking it when I get stumped on something I’m writing. It helped.

One thing that I find very rewarding is putting a little check mark box beside each activity on your task list. For some strange reason it’s very satisfy to check off a completed task. Check out the rest of An 18-minute Plan for Managing Your Day to learn the rest of the steps.

1 post down: check!

Tags: advance your career, career, Dragos Ruoa, Get Things Done, Managing your day, performance, Peter Bregman, Productivity, Rypple, Tim Ferris

Community Marketing

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In my previous post, Evaluative and Developmental Feedback, I mentioned Marshall Goldsmith’s philosophy of FeedForward. The FeedForward exercise has two goals, learn as much as you can, and help as much as you can. It’s about the future, not the past. Here’s a quick video of Marshall explaining the FeedForward exercise. Enjoy!

Tags: Coaching, Evaluative and Developmental feedback, feedforward, marshall goldsmith, Rypple

Community Marketing

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How much do you value feedback? Would you leave a job because you don’t get enough of it? David Simms, in Emerging Nonprofit Leaders: “More Feedback, Please”, uncovered some interesting insights into how important a culture that encourages feedback really is. David attended the Independent Sector’s annual conference, where he engaged 200 next generation nonprofit leaders in a group conversation. He discovered that most of the group planned to stay in their current organization for at least the next three years, but almost all said they would be gone in 10 years.

Why?

Because of an organizational culture that does not recognize the value of feedback:

What these young leaders recognized is that without candid feedback, both praise and developmental in nature, we deprive our teams, our organizations, and ourselves of the information needed to get better.

The fact that these young leader are willing to leave an organization because of a lack of a feedback culture has some interesting implications. It demonstrates just how crucial a culture that encourages learning and development is for keeping and acquiring the most driven people. As more of the next generation start to fill management roles, it will be interesting to see how corporate culture shifts towards one of feedback and development. Would you leave a job if you didn’t feel like you were getting enough feedback?

Tags: David Simms, Development, execution, Feedback, Harvard Business Publishing, next generation, performance, Rypple

Community Marketing

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Tomorrow at 12pm ET (9am PT) we’ll be hosting an exciting live event with Intuit. We’ll be sharing three keys to help you create a true performance-oriented culture in 2010.

What does that mean? Here’s a sneak peek: based on our experience working with awesome companies and industry thought leaders, we’ll share techniques to accelerate learning, improve focus, and boost productivity – so you can drive outstanding results in 2010! It’s a live discussion – so a great opportunity to hear from others as well!

Join us to learn more!

Tags: Corporate Culture, Intuit, live event, performance, performance-oriented culture

Business Development

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Although your high performers may need feedback less often then others, it’s still crucial that they receive regular, continuous feedback. Amy Gallo, in Giving a High Performer Productive Feedback, notes that it’s essential to give high performers feedback even though it may seem counter-intuitive. Here are some helpful tips from Giving a High Performer Productive Feedback:

Always describe behaviors, not traits. Don’t dwell on the past; instead focus on what the employee can change in the future

Be sure to provide feedback that offers solutions to obstacles your high performers may be facing. If you simply outline flaws, then they might see your feedback as ‘nitpicky’. You don’t want to annoy, or worse upset, you want to help. This is very similar to Marshall Goldsmith’s feedforward, which we’ve previously taken a look at.

To make the most of your feedback session, focus the discussion on three levels: the star’s current performance, her next performance frontier, and her future goals and aspirations

One of the character traits that defines a high performer is their eagerness to constantly ‘do better’. Help them develop a plan that will be challenging and keep them engaged.

I highly recommend that you read Giving a High Performer Feedback. The article contains many more helpful tips, as well as some interesting case studies.

Tags: Amy Gallo, behavior, execution, Feedback, feedback seesion, feedforward, Harvard Business Publishing, high performer, Management Essentials, marshall goldsmith, performance, Rypple

Community Marketing

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So you followed the 4 East Steps to Getting Started with Rypple and you got some insights from your crowd. Fantastic! Now what?

In my latest video blog I talk about the two things you should do next :

1. Follow up: seek clarification & engage your audience
2. Take action: tell your crowd what you’re going to do with their insights

Tip: the second one is hands down THE most important thing you can do with your feedback, so don’t forget to do it!

Enjoy!

Tags: change, Feedback, learning, People, professional development, Rypple

Product & Community

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Here’s an interesting stat from Ira S. Wolfe’s post Why Performance Reviews Fail:

As recently as 1982, sixty-two percent of the value of an organization was measured by its tangible assets. By 2002, nearly eighty percent of its value shifted to intangible assets

If ever there was a time to help your employees learn and develop it’s now. The value of your company depends on it. Here’s the problem: the performance review. Performance reviews don’t deliver performance and most organizations don’t have any other method to help their employees learn and develop. Here are my top 3 reasons from Ira’s article:

3.  When not provided regularly, annual (or even less periodic) reviews can be based on most recent performance, not performance over the course of the year. The results go both ways. Employees who put on their best behavior around review time get favorable ratings and the employee who has a bad couple of weeks gets punished.

We call this the recency effect. It’s been six months since you had your last performance review with John. A few months ago you noticed that he wasn’t properly following up with clients after a meeting. You told yourself that you’d mention it to him at his next performance review. John knows that review time is coming up, so he’s really cranked up his performance in the last few weeks and now you’ve forgotten about his previous issue. How does John get the feedback he needs to improve if you only meet twice a year?

6.  Annual reviews are really justification for salary freezes or smaller than expected salary increases. The manager might downgrade an employee’s performance feeling that with a high rating comes a demand for more money. Likewise, with a high rating, the employee might feel justified in requesting more salary or benefits.

People get defensive when the question of money and promotion comes into play. They’re less likely to admit to areas of weakness if they think it’s going to affect their pay. It’s no longer about improvement and feedback, but rather about balancing a compensation budget.

11.  “I really hate doing reviews but HR says I have to – so let’s just get it over with.” Performance reviews are scheduled because you’ve been told you have to do them.

If they’re hated by both parties then how is anyone benefiting? Checking boxes and writing generic comments is a waste of time. Worst of all both manager and employee don’t get feedback.

What do you think? Do you find the performance review helpful or are they just a waste of time and money?

Tags: execution, fail, Feedback, HR, Human Resources, Ira Wolfe, performance, Performance Reviews, recency effect, Rypple

Community Marketing

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