When I was sixteen I worked at a summer camp as an assistant counselor. I clearly remember the overwhelming terror I felt on the day I showed up for staff training. “What if I didn’t fit in?” “What if I weren’t able to do a good job?” It turns out that in many ways I didn’t fit in. My peers were gracious and accepted me anyway. As for doing a good job, it was a mixed bag. Lifeguard training was a complete bust (I don’t think I made it through the first day). But it turned out I was useful in other ways. At the end of the season I was invited to return the following summer.

In the years since, I’ve often wondered when I would finally grow up and stop being so afraid of new beginnings. Two decades later I think growing up is less about the absence of fear and more about choosing to act despite our doubts. I’ve spent much of my life so consumed with my own insecurities that I haven’t even paused to wonder what other people feel. I’ve assumed they feel fine; confident, calm, ready for whatever life throws at them. I’m beginning to learn that’s rarely the case.

We are so acquainted with our faults and flaws that we often fail to recognize the usefulness of our experience and talent. We assume (rightly) that there must surely be someone more skilled and experienced than ourselves. We miss the fact that none of those people are around. Although imperfect, we posses genuine ability in the presence of real opportunity and need.

So if like me you have a scared kid inside, please let me remind you. We benefit from you. We’re glad you’re here. Let’s use the abilities we have and work together to make this corner of the world a better place.

Ever notice how culturally acceptable it is to abuse vending machines? We hit, kick and curse at them until the money drops and the candy pops out.  Ever feel abused or taken for granted by your customers? Maybe you’ve made your business into a vending machine.  It happens for two reasons.

We get scared. Everyone knows humans are flawed.  We’re not surprised when people fall short of perfection.  And yet, we’re deathly afraid our own flaw will be exposed.  So we hide behind systems and processes and hope things run well.  Quality becomes a function of following the recipe, not just in product but in service as well.  We intentionally transform a group of people into a well-oiled machine.

We get selfish. There are things we want; money, influence, significance.  We build businesses that are delivery systems for the object of our desire.  We turn the relationship with our customer into a vending machine transaction.  You give me money, I give you product.  Maybe the candy is dispensed or maybe it sticks, the main thing is you put the money in the machine.  No wonder they beat the crap out of us when they’re unhappy!

The solution? Become a friend to those strangers you call customers.  Stop making your organization a robotic, disembodied head and start making it a collection of real people.  Build systems and processes that are designed to serve the humans instead of insisting your employees serve the processes.  Give something of value before you ask people to buy something from you.  With enough practice you may actually become flesh and bones again.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/minnesotahistoricalsociety

Ever wish you were a powerful business wizard? You might be more of one than you think.  There’s a name for people who’ve mastered that type magic…Marketers! Marketing is a mysterious art known for converting average wares to gold.  Just follow the steps, recite the incantation and you too can be the seller of shiny junk! Its not really magic so much as skilled sleight of hand.  By it, a regular guy from Omaha was able to become ruler of Oz.

Like Dorothy and gang, I’ll go where I must to get the product I want.  But given a choice I’d rather do business with friends.  And there’s the catch.  Enormous, disembodied heads don’t get invited to the corner pub and no one cares when they go out of business.  Most of the processes that pass for marketing these days make us less human.  They turn our organizations into machines instead of groups of people.  So how do we step out from behind the curtain and become human again?

Enter Joseph Jaffe and Mitch Joel, two like-minded friends standing back-to-back addressing different aspects of the same issue.  Joel speaks to the potential of marketing done well.  He informs us that “smart marketing is what creates great customer experiences”.  Jaffe reminds us that good marketers are “trying to resolve human to human connections”.  Taken together, the point is this: business is in essence a particular type of human interaction.  Good business practices, i.e. sound marketing, facilitate the relationship.

We prefer the magic version because genuine relationships are hard.  So we practice our sleight of hand and daydream of somewhere over the rainbow.  We need to realize our troubles will never “melt like lemon drops”.  But working together we can make a difference.  And perhaps with the efforts of you, me and the regular guy from Omaha, the dreams that we dare to dream really will come true!

Want more? Check out:
Six Pixels of Seperation by Mitch Joel
Flip the Funnel by Joseph Jaffe (affiliate links)

Photo credit: www.flickr.com/photos/22087304@N07

Have you ever faced a challenge so daunting you literally didn’t know where to begin to solve it? This seems to be the reaction most of us have when considering the possibility of improving our city.  There is no shortage of ideas on what to improve and yet so few people seem to do anything to make those improvements a reality.  The first step may be to quit viewing our city as a problem to solve.  Instead, we should look around for what’s already working and create more of that.  Or, in the words of Dan and Chip Heath “find a bright spot and clone it”.

The Heath brothers are the authors of the widely acclaimed book Made To Stick (Amazon affiliate link) and the upcoming Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (Amazon affiliate link).  In Switch the Heath brothers challenge us to consider the ratio of time we spend solving problems versus scaling successes.  They encourage us to move beyond archaeological problem solving to bright spot evangelizing.

So what are the bright spots in your city? What do you most appreciate about your town and why?

If you had a magic wand, what single thing would you change about your city? What if using your magic wand required you to learn a magic word and say it three times backwards?  Still worth it right? What if using your magic wand meant waiting 5 to 10 years for the result? Would it still be worth it? What if you had to wave your magic wand and say the magic word each day of those 5 to 10 years? Would you use it then?

You really do have a magic wand you know.  Your abilities, influence and passion are extremely powerful.  Don’t think they’re powerful enough? What about when coupled with the abilities, influence and passions of your friends and neighbors? And not just your friends, think about the exponentially increased power of a crowd that includes friends of friends of friends.  Social networking tools move this possibility from the realm of theory to the every-day practical.  Sound a bit like herding cats? You might find inspiration and a few wrangling tips from these guys:

Seth Godin – Seth’s book Tribes (Amazon affiliate link) will fuel your desire to accomplish something and assure you that it is possible.

Chris Brogan – If you’re new to online community building, Chris’ weekly newsletter is a great place to start.

Jono Bacon – Jono’s book The Art of Community (Amazon affiliate link) provides content useful for building communities of  30 to 30,000.

So…if you had a magic wand, what would you change about your city?