Up Market

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Top 10: Upmarket Articles June 24 – July 1, 2012 Posted: 02 Jul 2012 08:00 AM PDT Ready for a sharp Top 10 list this morning? I know I am! Take a gander at our most-viewed articles from those published last week: 1. Creativity, productivity, and sources of inspiration Creativity and innovation are the source of new business ideas, excellence in entrepreneurship, and talented individual success stories. It would be nice to assume that creative people are "just talented," and fall back on the assumption that "you either have it or you don't." The truth is, most creative people understand what it takes to be creative – diligence, persistence, hard work and perhaps a bit of a struggle – and tap into various sources of inspiration and known methods for productivity. 2. Quickfire: What is the most fundamental purpose of creating a business? What do Seth Godin, Charlie Gilkey and Chris Taylor believe is the most fundamental purpose of creating a business? Take a look at their responses, and share your own insights! 3. Learn to Navigate Rapid Change We are living in some fast water. We are very much in the current, navigating in-between space, living in an era of transition — a set of rapids, followed by a bit of calm (if we’re lucky) traveling down river — destination unknown. 4. Why Buying Another Clock Won't Get You There On Time Joel D Canfield tells us why buying another clock won’t make you a punctual person — and why finding why will. 5. Mixing It Up: [Video] Storytelling for On-the-Go Marketers A few weeks ago I started working with Tout, a video app for iPhone, iPad and Android smartphones. It's perfect for on-the-go video storytellers (marketers) and is regularly used by the likes of Anderson Cooper, Mit Romney, and Shaquille. 6. Are You An Entrepreneur… Or An Overworked Specialist? This is a common mistake made by new entrepreneurs, and you can avoid it: Don’t just create your job. Derrick Jones explains more in this quick, insightful video. 7. They’re Just Not That Into You Have you ever been asked for professional advice by a family member, only to stand in bewilderment when they go right ahead and do the exact opposite? There’€™s a reason, but it’s not what you might think. 8. Have You Shared Your Mission And Your Story Lately? Hot Tip From David Siteman Garland David Siteman Garland is host of the hugely popular The Rise To The Top web TV show, with an audience of 250,000+ savvy badass online entrepreneurs — and growing. 9. Do You iFast? For the last couple of years I've been reading about iFasts. The idea that for a full month you simply walk away from social media. Blogging. Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn. (Do you feel anxious yet?) But I've never been able to commit to it… 10. Pennies and dollars “Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.” I’m not sure this is true. In fact, I’m pretty sure that if you watch the dollars, you don’t have to worry so much about pennies.

Why do you have so many meetings? Posted: 02 Jul 2012 05:00 AM PDT What do pollution, overfishing, and your day jam-packed with meetings have in common? They’re all caused by the tragedy of the commons. Allow me to explain: Picture a big plot of grassy land shared by many farmers and their respective cattle. These farmers have a short term problem and a long term problem. The long term problem is obvious: if too many cows are allowed to graze, over time, the grass is destroyed. No farmer wants this. But short term, each individual farmer has a personal dilemma: "What if I let just one more of my cows graze?" he asks himself. "I'll get all the benefits of owning one more cow, but the cost (the depletion of grass) will be shared by everyone!” It’s a pretty irresistible deal, and so the farmer allows one more cow onto the grass. In fact, all the farmers do. Of course, they each don't just stop at one. They continue to allow more and more of their own cows onto the grass, until eventually, the grass is ruined. This classic scenario is known as the tragedy of the commons because multiple individuals acting based on their own short term self interests, destroy a shared limited resource, even though it goes against everyone’s long term interests. We see this social phenomenon everywhere — for example, pollution, overfishing, and what I call "over-meeting." Let’s say a manager needs advice for a decision he has to make and he wants the input of eight people. If he calls a one hour meeting, he can get eight people’s input all at once, by only spending one hour of his own time. Pretty good deal for the meeting caller, but to everyone else has been hit with a weapon of mass interruption. The aggregate cost of individuals acting in this self interested way is a system where the number of meetings held in an organization becomes unreasonable and unmanageable. That's a shame, because as Peter Drucker once said, "We either meet, or we work. We can't do both at the same time." Meetings are where we talk about, plan, and coordinate the real work, but it's not where we actually get it done. Instead, too many meetings create a debilitating culture of interruption, where it's rare to see a long stretch of open time available for people to do their real work. So how do we solve the tragedy of the commons problem? The answer is simple: one-on-one conversations. The great thing about a conversation is that it’s perfectly symmetrical. If I want to get one hour from you, I have to spend one hour myself. There’s no irresistible deal to exploit. Not only do switching to conversations prevent a tragedy of the commons, but there’s a side benefit: the one-on-one conversation is a fantastic communication tool. It’s more direct, more personal, easier to schedule, and usually less political. Don’t get me wrong, meetings are necessary. But not all the time. Like war, meetings should be a last resort. Image credit: Simon Blackley

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