Learn to speak Teen

I really enjoyed reading an article recently forwarded to me by Aiden called ‘Entertain. Inspire. Empower. How to speak a teen’s language, even if you’re not one.’ He found it at ChangeThis.com – a fascinating site that “is creating a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread.” (read the ChangeThis manifesto here).

Josh Shipp, the author, echoes the sentiments of many of us who have something meaningful to share with younger generations but loose effectiveness somewhere in translation. He suggests a few pointers that will help you get your message across:

Entertain

Josh believes we need to earn the right to be heard. To the average teen, what you’ve achieved, how much you earn and what floor you work on means squat. When you get up to speak, or engage them in conversation, you start from scratch. They will listen when they trust you, and trust comes from you being authentic and unique – being yourself in other words. Teens will smell a rat faster than you can say ‘dubya’ if you’re not being authentic.

Inspire

We have long been taught that our mistakes show weakness. That if our kids see us fail, they’ll lose respect for us. However, teens learn more from mistakes and failures than successes, provided they’re authentic of course.

As an individual engaging teens, be prepared to share your story, with all its warts. As a company wanting to engage teens, be prepared to share your story, with all its warts.

Empower.

Listen. Pay attention. Be accountable. They’re smarter than you think they are.

Download the complete PDF below and if you enjoy it, rate it at ChangeThis.com. Shipp’s website can be found at www.joshshipp.com.

Teens Language PDF

Are World Cups history?

I have no research to back this up, but I reckon we’ll soon be seeing the death of World Cup competitions … with the first being the soccer world cup. With the success of club competitions such as the EUFA Champions League, where the best clubs in Europe compete, loyalty is shifting from allegiance to one’s country towards the club one chooses to support. Some clubs even enjoy estimated supporter stats of roughly 43 million … or more. The thing about clubs is that they have no borders, they are brands. Loyalty is changing. We are seeing that one no longer need to originate from, or have some tenious link to a geographic region to be a supporter of that team. Sure, clashes between countries still draw millions and one’s nationality still rouses fueds of old. However, the power held within one’s nationality is not as potent as it was in days before global connectivity and globalisation.

Life Among The Dinosaurs

Here is a great article on newspapers. Worldwide, the newspaper industry is in such a complete state of denial that it is almost tragic. Enough of them are having a few successes with some of what they are currently trying for them to think that the digital age is going to bypass them. Most of them don’t realise that the readership is ageing and will soon literally die, and then it will all be over. To do scenario planning with newspapers is a sad affair.

I do think that there are things that can be done, and link ends with digital media that make sense (more than simply putting content online, whether free or subscriber only). But it’s going to take those people in charge of the industry to wake up and smell the coffee before anything meaningful can happen.

The short piece below appeared in the April 17, 2006 BusinessWeek. Click here for the original article.

There are almost 1,500 daily papers in the U.S., so the gathering of publishers at this year’s Newspaper Association of America annual conference — held Apr. 2-4 in Chicago — looked a lot like America. An America of local monopolists, that is: overwhelmingly white, male, late-middle-aged, and predisposed to wear suits on Sunday, even when traveling. They gathered to hear, once again, that the whole problem is that they are no longer monopolists.

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Companies In The Crossfire

At TomorrowToday, we are passionate about understanding the Connection Economy. We’re convinced that companies need to focus more and more attention on WHO they are, and not just on what they sell (or what they tell people about what they sell). Who you refers to a number of key issues: (1) your people, and what they believe and what they do (if your CEO has an affair, is that important? if your staff members are caught out smuggling drugs, does that impact whether people will buy from you?); (2) what causes and social issues your company supports; (3) your “triple bottom line” status – your social investment and your environmental impact; and (4) what institutions, political parties, causes you support.

This last point made the cover story of a recent edition of Business Week. The main point is that in an America currently more polarised by politics than at almost any time in its history, customers are choosing where to shop based on which political parties a store is known to support. This is the impact of the Connection Economy. And companies around the world need to take notice.

Read the story here (login required), or an extract below.

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Learning from Bill Gates

>There was a great article in the latest Fortune magazine where Bill Gates gives us an overview of how he manages his work life in this world of overload. I think there are some great lessons for those of us being challenged by information overload and working in a virtual community. Being able to focus in the clutter and taking time out to think through important issues are two that come to mind when I read the article.
Read it here