horsepigcow

So, we’ve talked alot about Accelerating Serendipity and how many of the things we do or participate in (twitter, dopplr, flickr, coworking, barcamp, etc) is all about creating more opportunities for everyday magic to happen (that stuff you couldn’t have planned in a zillion years, but is exactly what needs to happen to get to the next level)…but *wow*…I am still always floored when it happens.

So, the other day, I wrote how my friend Lloyd sent me this awesome link to a cool interview with Alex Frankel, the person who went undercover to explore the nuances of customer service with each brand and wrote a really cool book on the subject matter, Punching In.

Serendipity number one. How did Lloyd really know that I would appreciate the link? Probably because I publish everything openly. I didn’t say, “Please send me examples of people in this situation.” He just knew because I had made my thoughts so readily apparent, he kind of figured it would be something I was interested in.

Well, I was. I ordered the book.

Then about 2 hours later, Lane Becker, of Satisfaction, tweeted:

anybody here have contact info/could make an intro for me to ron johnson, senior vp of retail, apple?

And, because Lloyd had sent me the link, I didn’t have Ron Johnson’s contact info, but I had the info of someone who Lane may be interested in…because I knew, from his various communications, that he is working on a conference, The Customer Service Summit, that is pretty much tied to the concept of Frankel’s book. So, I sent Lane the information.

That was serendipity number two btw.

Serendipitous moment number three…today I get two packages. One from Amazon and one from Alex Frankel himself…thanking me for the intro (I’m hoping he accepted the offer). Now I have not one, but TWO books (one will go into the Citizen Space library)! This means that I have contact with Frankel (he sent me his personal information in the package) that I plan to use to see if he would like to sit down for an interview to be part of MY book.

Personally, I don’t think the serendipity will end there. I’m pretty sure there will be many happily unexpected moments out of this particular wire crossing, but the beauty of serendipity is that I can’t imagine what those look like and I could never try to plan them.

Thanks so much to my friend, Jay Fichialos, now on Ma.gnolia and sending me awesome links like this one that say things like:

…the one thing I have been able to extract as the core and essential principle is the fact that people are the singlemost important elements in a company. When you think about it, “company” implies that one person is in the company of another. Or an “organization” is a system of people, and certainly not a bunch of computers or other inanimate objects. Human resources are the critical factor to winning a game of basketball (not the basketball itself), to taking a company public (lawyers are people too), to fixing a great bowl of chicken soup (the ingredients do help, but it takes a person to collect those ingredients), and so forth.

This reminded me of frustrations I had a couple of years back and an equivalent frustration I experienced lately when a dear friend told me she couldn’t attend this amazing conference on Customer Service/Satisfaction (by the good folks at Satisfaction), which would not only be an excellent boon for her knowledge on the subject, it would also benefit her employer greatly because they would have an incredibly plugged-in, cutting edge thinker on the team. This is not to mention that the customer service executives from every cool company in North America will be hungrily networking there to meet those plugged-in, cutting edge thinkers like my friend.

My frustrations occurred in a couple of different marketing positions I held at various companies, where, even though I was in charge of building community in one particular case, I was expected to hold regular office hours with the rest of the staff. Ducking out for an afternoon meetup or other community-type event was seen as ‘frivolous’ and something I should do on ‘my time’. This was an absurd idea to me and I continued to defy the notion that I should be sitting at a desk creating marketing plans rather than actually going out and meeting people face to face who are part of the community I wished to reach.

Compound this with a very astute tweet by my friend Chris Heuer (another budding author) a couple of weeks back:

Companies don’t really have conversations with customers, their employees do. People talking to people is real, beyond marketing and spin... 10:56 AM November 01, 2007

…and something really profound occurred to me: A Company is the Sum of the Social Capital of its People.

When I think about the really ‘cool’ brands out there there is always at least one person who we know and admire…who has influence and who has reams of Social Capital. You dig deeper into the company employees and you see that really dynamic and growing companies have loads of employees with smaller, but strong networks they influence. Apple, of course is a really great example of this. Who doesn’t want to be Steve Jobs, really? I mean, he even has someone who IS his fake self. But there are Apple employees who are influencers everywhere, even if they don’t appear in an official capacity all of the time. And how about the influence of the Geniuses and other Apple Store employees on people’s interaction with the brand? HUGE. [hat tip to Lloyd for that great link] I would take a leap and attribute a good portion of Apple’s fantastic growth in the past couple of years to that one-on-one interaction between employees and customers.

Of course, none of this is news or anything. It’s been pretty obvious to many people for a long time that sending your employees out into the world to build relationships with customers and potential customers is really good for your brand. D’uh.

So, why is it that my friend and many others are still expected to clock in at 8:00 a.m. and clock out at 5:00 p.m.? Why aren’t social gatherings, community involvement, courses, conferences and events and general networking encouraged more? Why isn’t everyone encouraged to blog, be on IM, have Facebook profiles and post their running commentary on Twitter? Why aren’t we encouraging every one of our employees to go out there and build the hell out of their Social Capital?

I have a theory. Tell me if I’m wrong.

We don’t value non-crappy, paper-heavy, numbers-driven work. As soon as we see someone enjoying their work, we accuse it of not being work at all. If someone takes an extra long lunch to go to a social event where they are meeting industry peers, we say things like, “Must be nice to be able to take such a long lunch break” as if that person’s extra 1/2 hour should have been spent sitting in front of their computers, working on some spreadsheet or something that would have been actual work.

Now, OF COURSE there should be some sort of definition of activities and measurements in place to ensure that everyone is accountable. I like to trust my coworkers as much as the next person, but I’ve worked with enough people to realize that loose, under-defined goals like, “Build Social Capital” are bound to lead to equally under-defined actions. If I used this new structure to hang with my same friends each and every day, it ceases being useful Capital.

According to theorists, Social Capital comes in two forms: Bonding and Bridging Capital. Bonding Capital is what we do with good friends and family: we build deep relationships of trust and care. We can count on those we have Bonding Capital with for our survival. Bonding Capital is essential to our individual survival (so these days when my 14 year old is rude to me, I tell him that he is threatening his survival by testing our Bonding Capital – works like a charm) and is what emotionally fulfills us.

Bridging Capital, on the hand, is the type of Social Capital that helps us grow and builds our careers and businesses. Bridging Capital is what you are building when you go outside of your normal group of friends and meet new people. It’s what you do when you go to conferences that have people you don’t always hang out with there. It’s what you do when you leave your office and meet others in your industry. According to Robert Putnum (Bowling Alone):

(Bridging connections) are better for linkage to external assets and for information diffusion…(and provide a)…sociological WD-40…(that can)…generate broader identities and reciprocity. (Putnum 2000: 22-23)

But even though these definitions and measurements are not currently in place, businesses can start by recognizing that a certain amount of bridging activity is necessary to encourage for all of their employees – not just those in sales and marketing. Benefits?

• The creation of Bridging Capital that will positively effect the influence of your company
• This puts your employees in the perfectly right position for coming up with awesome ideas to please your customers
• The flipside of that, which is the ability of your employees to recognize potential problems and be proactive in averting them
• The creation of plugged-in, cutting edge employees in general
• A happier, more fulfilled group of employees who feel part of their company’s growth (which they are)

I really hope that my unnamed friend shows this article to her employer and is able to attend said conference and that it resonates as well with many others. I look forward to your feedback and stories.

These days I’m traveling, on average, about 2-3 times per month. Basically, I’m living out of a suitcase (I don’t even put it in the closet any longer between trips). A while back I shared some travel tips, but since then, I’ve learnt a great deal more that I thought I’d share with you.

BOOKING

Do you have a hierarchy of booking preferences? I do. When I didn’t travel quite as much, I would just look for the cheapest flight. Now that I travel frequently and I’ve been through various levels of hell with airlines, airports and booking services, I’ve created a hierarchy that allows me to book smarter. Even if you don’t travel frequently, you may find it advantageous.

My hierarchy looks like this:

1. A trusted airline/hotel/car rental/etc.

One that hasn’t tried to screw me or a friend in the past. Everyone makes mistakes. I get that. But how they handle themselves when they make those mistakes is what I consider the test. For instance: I have used a third party site in the past (it may have been priceline? I can’t recall) and when I went to check into a return flight, it was canceled and they hadn’t notified or rebooked us. So, I called them and they said, “Sorry, can’t help you.” I was furious. They couldn’t help? So, we called Air Canada directly, who not only rebooked us (for free), but paid for our hotel one more night, and gave us a refund of $300 on each ticket.

Factors include: service, flexibility, friendliness and good website UI. I love the airlines that will SMS me with delays (Southwest). I don’t mind paying for my own meals or movies. I like being able to upgrade myself to an exit row for an extra couple of dollars. That sort of thing.

Currently on my ‘fly’ list are: Southwest, Jet Blue, Virgin, Air New Zealand, Air Canada, Frontier, Alaska, and all of the european airlines. On my ‘no fly’ is: American, United, Delta, and US Airways (and pretty much every major US airline). See the awesome article in today’s New York Times that explains why service has gone so awry with these airlines. Basically, they don’t give a damn about us cattle class passengers…as most of their revenue comes from the business and first class passengers. My favorite part? An email from Spirit Air’s CEO to his staff:

“Please respond, Pasquale, but we owe him nothing as far as I’m concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He’s never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny.”

2. For flight: fewer connections

I will also pay a premium to get fewer connections. Luggage gets lost too many times on connecting flights. I’ve had it lost too many times now and I get paranoid. Plus, I’ve also had extremely tight connections that were missed OR really long layovers that were time suckers.

3. The right time of day/night.

I don’t like getting up really early if I don’t have to. I also am okay with redeyes as long as I don’t have something early the next morning. So, I will often pay a higher price to get a better time of day.

4. Price

I’m not rich, so I still have to watch my wallet. I also travel alot, so budgeting is still an issue. I wish it wasn’t. I’d like to take this off of my list (wouldn’t everyone?)

Searching for Flights & Hotels

I relayed some trouble I had with Expedia.com a couple of weeks back. To be fair, this wasn’t the first time I’ve experienced difficulties with third-party booking sites. Out of the 6 times I have used one of these sites, 4 times I have had trouble. Once, my flight was cancelled and nobody informed me (I found out when I went to check in online). Twice, my hotel booking wasn’t found when I got to the hotel. And the other time, the car rental agency I THOUGHT I was booking through the site wasn’t the car rental agency the site booked me with (I wasn’t impressed as I didn’t particularly like the agency they booked me with). So, it isn’t only Expedia.

Sometimes the deals are better through the third party sites, but not always. In fact, in an extensive search (if I use Kayak.com and check off the boxes for the search to go to all of the sites), I quite often find that the hotels or airlines, themselves, offer the lowest price.

It’s also advisable to click through to the airline or hotel’s actual search results page because more than once, I’ve found even better deals (and options) right on their websites.

As well, because of my complicated tastes and frequent travel, a friend advised me that I get an assistant or a concierge service…it may actually save me money. I’m currently looking into this and will get back to you. As well, don’t forget that you can always use Couch Surfing if you are on a tight budget. We’ve used it successfully in the past.

POINTS

What is one to do when they aren’t particularly loyal to a single brand? Well, some point systems reign better than others. I heart Air Canada’s Aeroplan very much. You see, it doesn’t matter that I don’t fly them every single time, because I can use their points for other great stuff. I get Bloomingdale’s gift certificates from them all of the time. I have also found that points are awfully hard to cash in (maybe it is me?). It takes finding a flight on the exact right date for the exact right amount to actually use them.

This being said, I can see why having points is a good thing if you want to be upgraded to that coveted first class (where you will be treated like gold), loyalty to a single airline that will get you points is good. I just haven’t found an airline that goes to all of the places I need to go that I can stand for longer than one hellish flight to get to that point. It will take me a little longer, but I’m close to high status on Southwest, Virgin and Jet Blue. And I’ve told you what I do with the Aeroplan points (which I get more out of, imo, anyways…my favorite pair of designer jeans were purchased with 3 gift certificates at Bloomingdales…I would have never paid $200 for a pair of jeans. ).

ITINERARY MANAGEMENT & FINDING COOL STUFF LOCALLY

This is the most important section, methinks. For someone who travels as much as I do and on as many different airlines, etc., I need strong itinerary management. That is why I heart TripIt in a serious way. (I should also note that we’ve advised TripIt)

It allows me to email the itinerary items I get from each hotel, airline, booking site, etc. and it automagically fills it in for me in a nicely printable itinerary (although, the printed portion could use a little compacting). It also has an SMS interface, so if I want to save trees or lose my itinerary, I can just SMS it with something like “get flight today” and it will send me my details straight to my phone. They also have a cute little wallet card with these commands, so I don’t have to memorize anything. The only thing they need is the SMS the other way so I can send something like “save dinner at Chez Pierre tonight” or the like.

So, then now that I am no longer trying to check into the wrong airline, what helps me when I get there? Well, I also use another service I heart to pieces, Dopplr (I have lots of invites to both of these). Dopplr is unique and simple. It, basically, allows me to input where I’ll be and when and then comes back and tells me which of my friends (on Dopplr or Twitter) live there or will be traveling there at that time, too. This is an awesome accelerating serendipity tool. Nobody to have dinner with? Check Dopplr and drop someone (or a group) a line. I’ve had multiple spontaneous dinners this way. Wondering what is good to see? Eat? Do? Drop a note to a local on your list. Locals always know best.

Between the two of these services (which really should work together, btw), I have way better travel experiences these days. Other great sites: Yelp.com (mostly for US cities, but great restaurants found there) and Yahoo!Travel (for more remote vacation ideas and decent tips from other travelers).

PACKING & LUGGAGE

If you are going to travel a bunch, I would recommend investing in good luggage. I did tons of research on this and recently invested in luggage that I’m really happy with.

What to look for in luggage:

1. Weight - this is very very very very very (did I say very?) important. Not because you will need to lug this beast around, but because in many countries internationally, there is a seriously low weight limit. Like 20 kgs. After that point, they charge mega $$ for overweight. When you buy inexpensive luggage, you are usually saving money because of the materials it is made with. It may be sturdy, but it weighs 10kg. That is half of the weight allowance and doesn’t give you any budge room for extra knick-knacks for the family. My 30″ suitcase is 4.8kg.
2. Color – a funky color makes it much easier for you to find your luggage on the turnstile (the number of people with black suitcases, flipping over every single case that comes by and checking the tag is staggering at airports), but baggage handlers have no respect for a pretty baby blue case. In about 3 trips, your baby blue case will look like a smeary gray case. Darker colors work the best. I got mine in a medium blue and they stand out enough for me to spot it from far away, but are dark enough not to show wear after 10 flights with them.
3. Wheels – Four wheels are funky and provide you with different ways to wheel your luggage, but on most of the four-wheel suitcases, these wheels are flimsier and stand out further (plus, they add weight). That being said, four wheels are good through transit turnstiles and other tight spaces.
4. Features – I didn’t buy the suitcases with these because of their weight (Samsonite Black Label drooooool – but heavy!), but some suitcases come with amazing features like magazine pockets, toiletry kits, laundry bags, shoe bags and integrated suiter systems. These are super handy, but you can, of course, add your own. It is kind of nice when they match, though.
5. Hardside or Softside? – this is kind of a preference, but softside will always ‘give’ more (stuff the heck out of them), while hardside stands up to the test of time (the right hardside that is) and looks better, longer. Both hardside and softside come with expandable zips, which are preferable.
6. Handle – we bought some luggage a while back with a funky ‘ball’ grip. Not a great idea. It was heavy and rubbed our palms painfully when lugging long distances. The ‘T’ handle is the best if you can find it, but the ‘U’ handle built in a really light (aluminum or titanium) is very comfortable as well.

If you want to find a really stylish suitcase, good brands to look at are: Mandarina Duck (the suitcases I bought), Samsonite Black Label, Rimowa (they have a way cool bendable rubber type hardside and a very durable aluminum) and Victorinox. Both Tumi and Heys are extremely heavy for some reason. Stylish but heavy.

I also love to shop at Flight 001 for amazing travel goodies, but it’s only in SF, LA, Chicago & NYC for the moment.

AIRPORT DISCREPANCIES

Here is where the gaps exist. Every new country I visit has new rules in their airports. Here are some rules I’ve learnt thusfar that are different:

LONDON – only one carry on. Not one carry on + personal item. One carry on. Period.
AUCKLAND – 20kg max for checked in luggage and 7kg max for carry on luggage. They will make you check (and pay for) anything over the 7kg.
AMSTERDAM – you go through the security at your gate. Very efficient, methinks.
MEXICO CITY – the immigration is a friggin’ nightmare here, so leave LOTS of time between flights if you have them. As well, if you are running out of time, don’t be afraid to go to the special delegates desk.
CHICAGO (O’Hare) – leave loads of time for connecting flights here as this is a HUGE airport and often flights are delayed because of winds.
CANADA (any city) – you go through US immigration BEFORE you leave from Canada, so be at the airport extra early for Canadian flights leaving to the US. I will talk a little more about VISAs in the next section.

There are tons more, and I will add yours if you leave them in the comments below. I would, personally, LOVE to see TripIt or some other travel service automagically give me the particularities of each airport I’m flying in and out of BEFORE I get there.

VISAS

This is my personal hell. I’m on a TN1 Visa – this is the NAFTA Visa that makes it simpler for certain workers from Canada, Mexico and the US to work in the respective countries. Only, it is easy in some ways and really frustrating in others.

There is a whole blog post on VISAs and the icky experience of being a non-US Citizen (hello? what happened to the American dream, dude?) at some point in the future, but for now, I will list the best airports to travel through for those of you with VISAs.

IN CANADA

Calgary – if you want to obtain a TN1 from a Canadian city, travel through Calgary. There isn’t as much of a demand (shorter lines) and they are super friendly. Try to avoid Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal at all costs. Unfortunately, I had an ‘incident’ at SFO this last trip in and they removed the piece of paper that proves my TN1 status and my next trip is through Montreal. I’m totally not looking forward to this.

IN THE USA

New York – the immigrations officials in NYC know their stuff. They are super well trained and understand the ins and outs of all of the VISAs. They put their top-notch officials in there. Now, SFO, where I come through too frequently is a mess. I never see the same people and I get a different story every time. It’s so bad, I’m having my lawyer put together a fact sheet for next time (I will post it here when it is complete). The TN1 has been around for 20+ years. Sigh. Oh…and I’ve heard LAX and Houston is pretty good as well.

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So, there you go. More travel tips to come most likely in the future, but that’s it for now…

q: What do you call someone who joins communities, adds friends and generally uses social networking tools to promote their own interests solely?

a: a community freeloader

Now, promoting your interests within a community isn’t a bad thing, per se. Having strong networks of people is a great advantage to furthering your causes, getting advice, meeting the right contacts to further your career and getting folks out to your events. However, where it becomes problematic is when you lose the balance of DEPOSIT and WITHDRAWAL in that Social Capital bank account of yours.

Balancing Your Social Capital Accounts

Now, I don’t want to reduce every interaction we human beings have with another person to being a transaction, but, in effect, it is. If I ask a friend for a favor, she is bound oblige. However, if I ask that same friend for ten favors, she may start to feel like I’ve depleted my ‘allowance’ on my account with her. Of course, with different people, we have more leeway. With our close friends and family we have loads of Social Capital to withdraw from and as our relationships get more casual, the less influence and favor we carry with others.

For instance, have you ever heard yourself saying, “I don’t want to use up my favors with him” or “It’s time to cash in those favors”? Well, whether we are aware of it or not, there is a transaction – even if it isn’t always direct or equally reciprocated – that happens between people. In the book that I’m currently reading, The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation, Matt Ridley points out that this isn’t unique to our culture or even to us as human beings. Tit-for-tat is a common tool for community balance amongst many cultures as well as animal groups. It ensures that people both contribute as well as benefit to the commons.

It is actually a very positive part of our relationships – especially when we do a favor for someone without expecting it in immediate return. Those favors add up to a great deal of future Social Capital. And that Social Capital goes a long way in the future.

What I’ve observed in the various communities I’ve been part of is the entrance of community freeloaders, or, really, the types of people who just withdrawal their Social Capital until their totally whuffie poor, then wonder why they aren’t getting ahead. These people are what economists call ‘rational fools’:

…far from being altruistic, the cooperative person is merely looking out to his long-term self-interest, rather than the short term….Amartya Sen has called the caricature of the short-sighted self-interested person a ‘rational fool’. If the rational fool turns out to be taking short-sighted decisions then he is not being rational, just short sighted. He is indeed a fool who fails to consider the (long term) effect of his actions… – p.137

It is rational (economically) to take advantages of people in the short-term to make gains, but as Ridley points out, it is the generous villagers who are almost always the dominant ones. (p. 98)

Deposits and Withdrawals

So what kinds of actions are DEPOSITS and what kind of actions are WITHDRAWALS? Well, it really does depend on the community and the individuals you interact with. For instance, most people would probably feel good about helping out an even casual acquaintance with an introduction to another acquaintance. Some may put a caveat on the introduction (“I don’t know him too well, but he comes highly recommended”, etc.). Of course, the size of that favor also matters to whether the withdrawal is too large for the relationship. If someone I just met asked me to introduce them to Jimmy Wales, I would probably feel that was a little presumptive and would need them to spend more time establishing their trustworthiness with me before I passed that introduction along as a misfired introduction may hurt my own reputation with Jimmy. But most first favors may actually be a deposit (leaving me with the feeling of having done something nice for someone else, I warm up to the person), then start to become withdrawals after that point.

But if we were to speak in general terms about what is a DEPOSIT and what is a WITHDRAWAL, I would present the following table:

Of course, this list isn’t conclusive, the withdrawals aren’t all for the same amount and there are alot of grey areas for people, but you get the gist. What the things in the DEPOSIT column have in common is that they are reciprocal, relationship-building actions, whereas, the WITHDRAWAL column is about personal gain. Now, of course, there is personal gain in the relationships, but it is a long-term gain, rather than the short-term gains of the WITHDRAWAL column.

And don’t get me wrong, promoting your events, asking for connections and telling people about your company are totally viable, real and legitimate actions that are and should be performed within networks and communities every day. The trick is, just like a bank account, make sure you have a healthy account balance (ie. more deposited than withdrawn). As well, much like a personal bank account, it is beneficial to carry a higher balance. You never know when you’ll have a rainy day.

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This is the presentation that Chris and I will be giving tomorrow morning here in Taupo, New Zealand. I thought you may want to take a sneak peek.

I had to downgrade the images so that Slideshare would accept it, so if you want a copy of the high resolution presentation, I’d be happy to send it to you.