K.E.E.N. skills | The Fourth Revolution Blog

Make sure you can’t U-turn for a while, but don’t burn the bridge!

I have had some interesting reactions to the blog post “The art of overcoming the lizard: make U-turn impossible for some time!“. Is the ‘no U-turn’ metaphor the right one? Actually the popular imagery for making sure you move forward and you can’t move back is ‘burning bridges’. I had thought using this image first, but actually that’s wrong!

Burning bridges (or boats) was a very common tactic from military generals that wanted to make sure their army would not flee – one of the most famous examples is Cortes burning the boats that had brought the conquistadores to America in 1519. Even since time immemorial that was a motivation tactics: in Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, we are told: “When your army has crossed the border [into enemy territory], you should burn your boats and bridges, in order to make it clear to everybody that you have no hankering after home.”

Is that really what you need to do? Right, after you burnt the bridge, the lizard brain can say what it wants, you need to move forward, or at least you can’t move backwards. But you have severely reduced your options; you might also have alienated a number of people, which will have negative influences in your future activities.

I believe it is enough to make sure you are in a “no U-turn” situation that makes sure you have to cross the bridge and taste the air on the other side. In particular when the “no U-turn” situation is linked to your ego, it is enough to calm down the lizard (I just resigned, I’m not going to come back to beg for my position, do I?).

So, simple piece of advice: don’t ever burn your bridges unless you are really compelled to to tame an insistent lizard brain. And that should never happen in normal life, only in life-and-death situation.

Take the highway and don’t look back, that’s enough!

The proof of the failure of conventional R&D, and what to do about it

In high-tech, breakthrough technology appears to be negatively correlated with R&D expenditure. In this amazing article, how Apple disrupted its market on a shoe-string R&D budget, we see how R&D expenditure (relative to the revenue of the company) does not correlate at all with market breakthrough, on the contrary.

R&D as percentage of net income for technology companies

Here is the curve given in the post. Other examples are developed in the post itself like Microsoft – high expenditure, low results.

We know that with the Fourth Revolution looming, the conventional R&D system is broken. The “R&D factories” that were created during the Industrial Age can’t produce the disruptive output we need to make a difference in the world.

As an other example, pharmaceutical companies are also suffering from the obsolescence of the former model where pumping money in R&D would automatically deliver a blockbuster later on.

What is the appropriate new model for R&D and breakthrough innovations?

A first part of the answer could lie in the ‘lean startup’ movement which is currently very trendy. What is the concept about? It says, basically, that prototyping is cheap today. Don’t spend years developing a perfect product you believe the market wants. Come out as soon as possible with a workable product, test your product as soon as you can on the market, and iterate like mad. Apple does exactly that: their products are always missing something that will come in the next iteration. And in the meantime they get plenty of feedback on what to improve.

A second part of the answer will lie in “Open Innovation” or “Crowd Innovation” as soon as it will have found an effective model.

Here is the conundrum: effective R&D (in the sense of market breakthrough) costs 10 times less and is 10 times more effective that what you think.

Should you do more of what you’re doing now or seek a new model for R&D, a model that will bring you through the Fourth Revolution?

Today, the freelancing market is without borders. Did you realize it?

Today, for relatively simple services (graphic design, translation, virtual assistant, all sorts of website development etc) that can almost be called commodity services, the market is… worldwide. You can hire easily, from your desk, a service provider at the end of the world, North America, India or South America.. it does not really matter. Did you realize it?

Not convinced? Visit Elance or Freelance.com to see how those platforms propose to connect buyers and service providers, and what are all the possible jobs that can be done. Like E-Bay, these companies provide a platform that secures transactions, and they allow to examine the track record of buyers and sellers and the evaluations by previous users. Service providers can also show some samples of their work.

Those platforms for e-freelancing started typically in the early 2000s. Elance mentions a 100% increase of activity in this market in the last year and foresees another doubling in 2012. The overall market can be estimated to be far more than 500M$ in 2011, and will thus pass the billion $ mark in 2012.

Moreover, these services allow talented artists and individuals from emerging countries to take part to the worldwide market and benefit directly from the economy. Clearly that puts also pressure on the prices that can be proposed by service providers from developed countries. This is a fact today: for commodity services, the market is worldwide and that won’t change. The only way to charge higher prices is differentiation and creating longer term, emotional connection with the buyer. And career or business development can also be considered from home, using only internet to sell your services!

I remember how in Europe, a proposed regulation by the European Commission to allow the liberalization of services across borders was a big political issue in the middle of the last decade. Well, it looks that this debate has been made completely obsolete by the Fourth Revolution, at least for those services that don’t need physical work or presence.

In the next post I will describe my experience in using Elance, recruiting a… Argentinian (!) designer to produce the characters I needed for my next book, “Project Soft Power”.

Stay tuned! The Fourth Revolution has not finished to astonish you!

The art of overcoming the lizard: make U-turn impossible for some time!

There is only one way to tame the lizard when doing a significant transition out of your comfort zone: make sure you can’t U-turn too soon!

No U turn on the bridge — U-turn forbidden once on the bridge!

In my previous post on the 10 useful learning points from preparing for my company launch, the first 4 points were basically about taming the lizard, the basic fear of the unknown.

In my case I have observed how the lizard was powerful, creating moments of very intense anxiety even if my situation moving forward was pretty secure seen from an external, rational viewpoint. Leaving habits, a sense of institutional security, a life I got used to manage quite easily, is a lot to bear for the lizard who seeks to protect us constantly.

Once I had taken the decision, I was pretty hasty in throwing in my resignation from my corporate job, a bit too hasty for some people. Yet it was necessary for me. After having put in my letter, I was on bridge to my new life. And U-turn was not possible, at least just now. It might still be somewhere along the way when I’ll have ventured on the the other side for some time, but for now I could just go onward, straight to the other side.

Sometimes it is necessary to make sure we can’t U-turn for some time. For the sake of overcoming the lizard. Plan for it if you intend to change significantly your life.

Don’t miss my public talk on “Project Soft Power” on 6 March 2012 in Singapore!

I am happy to announce that I will give a 1 hour + public talk on the 6 March 2012 at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business in Singapore at 7:30pm. This talk is hosted by SPMI, the Singapore Chapter of the Project Management Institute. More information on this event on the website of the SPMI.

Pencil already this event in your agendas to discover Project Soft Power, the Secret of the Great Project Leaders! in a unique occasion before the publication of the book later this year!

“The most successful project leaders rely not only on their technical and analytical skills, but also on strong personal and interpersonal practices. This speech will allow participants to understand the 5 practices of Project Soft Power, and how everybody can learn and practice them.”

Even if you are not involved in project management, this talk can still be of interest to you as it will describe those skills that are indispensable today for the K.E.E.N., as part of his leadership skills.

Kaggle.com is still missing the point of Crowd-Innovation – unleashing the Value of the Fourth Revolution

Did you hear about Kaggle.com? It is one of the most innovative startups of 2011 according to Business Insider. Agreed, it is an improvement on the model of “Open Innovation” developped by Innocentive or Ninesigma, but unfortunately it still misses the point of collaborative innovation, or Crowd-Innovation.

Kaggle is bringing together scientists (mainly data-scientists) to participate in collaborative competitions to solve difficult problems. It boasts a network of 17,000 PhD-level people.

Heritage Health Prize on Kaggle — Are you ready to contribute on Kaggle.com?

Have a look at their sites and the different possible competitions. The most well known is the “Heritage Health Prize” with a prize of 3 million US$: Can you predict who will turn up at the hospital next year based on people’s medical history / historical claims data?

Of course that’s the outlier; most competitions have a prize of 10,000$ or less, and are mainly rewarded by community recognition among the world’s best data-crunchers, or free trips or the ability to present in a well-known conference. You can help to improve prediction of insurance claims, rating of pictures, or help NASA bring evidence of dark matter!

It appears that Kaggle brings something more than Innocentive or Ninesigma, who also bring together the problems of large companies and a worldwide network of passionate problem solvers. Kaggle develops the concept of competition where people can see the result of others in real time, which is a form of deep motivation. Yet Kaggle still stops short of where the power of the Collaborative Age lies: collaboration between participants.

The right format of “Open Innovation” is still to mature. Will it be through companies, foundations, non-profits? How is real time feedback given about the performance of other competitors? How can we develop a spirit of true collaboration between the participants above and beyond competition, a tight community to solve the hardest problems?

The value of “Open Innovation” needs to be unleashed completely. Actually “Open Innovation” needs to be transformed into “Crowd-Innovation” because it is just that we want to achieve: getting people to collaborate meaningfully on a problem they are passionate about.

What will become of our Industrial-Age huge and rigid research organizations? They’ll have to open to the crowd or die.

Even Innocentive, Ninesigma and even Kaggle still need to go one step further or they will struggle to continue. Who will find the right concept, allowing cooperation between participants to develop?

10 useful learning points from preparing for my company launch

In the last 3 months as I worked to prepare my company’s launch and my jump into the unknown of entrepreneurship, here are some useful learning points I wanted to share with you, or how I have started to look at myself differently:

magic mirror: building one's image — building one's image

You learn a lot about yourself. After I resigned from my employment, there was no turning back – I needed to go for it. I found out it is more an internal struggle than an external one. A lot of things boil down to self-limiting beliefs. When you overcome them you find that the world is quite keen to hear about you and your project. So why hesitate?
People crave to jump into entrepreneurship: more than 80% of the people I talked to in my former company, after I resigned, expressed support and added something like: ‘I’d love to do this. It has been my dream forever’. And often, they actually provided support and contacts. So, what prevents you really from doing it?
Our mindset is very much geared towards security, and this impedes people to take action. Those people also added: ‘You have some balls!’. In effect, is it more secure to stay as an employee nowadays? I am not sure!
I went through some high anxiousness moments myself. They were not entirely rational for sure, because the short term future is assured by a contract that I managed to get, but the lizard repeats in your ear again and again, and louder if something happens like a rejection: ‘that will never work!’. Leaving employment to create your own company can be sometimes an uphill battle!
It is very important to benefit from the support of family and friends. In particular in these tough moments of doubts, or to find advice and resources. Support and excellent advice often come from unexpected places!
It is exciting to meet new interesting people and think in terms of what opportunities could be developed. As I try to grow my network I am meeting lots of interesting people and I attend great seminars, speeches etc. OK, I could have done that when I was employed but it gives an incentive to have to do it for your marketing! And that’s a side which I really like being an entrepreneur. I am also free to go to many new events, it’s just a choice by me how I want to spend my time, within certain reasonable bounds.
Take advantage of the cheap resources like books and blogs to know what to do and what not to do. Thanks to the Fourth Revolution, there are many resources available for close to free! As my development area at this moment is mainly in marketing, I read lots of books, in particular, ‘Book Yourself Solid‘ by Michael Port, ‘Duct Tape Marketing‘ by John Jantsch, and ‘Built to Sell‘ by John Warrillow ; I follow also many blogs or receive newsletters among which Michael Port’s, Pamela Slim’s Escape from Cubicle Nation blog and Tim Berry’s blog.
Just try and if it fails, you’ll have a direction for improvement. It is much better – faster and more secure – than thinking too long to develop the perfect thing, that might not appeal to anybody! Instead of going to a professional for branding, I have decided to give it a try. I’ll only pay a professional-looking website and branding materials when I’ll be very crystal clear about my niche and will have feedback from clients on the products. My first try at the company’s visual identity was not professional enough, and the feedback from prospective clients and esteemed relations hurt a lot. But it gave the incentive to go for a second try which is much better. In the meantime I had plowed my way through Michael Port’s workbook, had had some discussions with prospective clients and was much clearer about the identity and the tagline for the company, so the second version of the branding look is much more to the point, and much more focused.
Focus your niche as much as possible. I did not really believe in this widespread advice first, but it is very true, and it works. It helps you define your identity, gives a clear edge for all the resources and tools you develop, and helps you define very clearly what you intend to do. I have already met other entrepreneurs struggling with a too wide range of ambitions. Focus on a small niche first, it does not impede you to take other jobs, and you can grow later. In my case I started from general project management consulting, and now my tagline is “We Empower Organizations to be Reliably Successful in Executing Large, Complex Projects”. Much more focused isn’t it? Focus, Focus, Focus.
Professional associations are desperate for speakers, a good opportunity to get yourself known. It is relatively easy to get a slot to talk locally, and it is a good starting point for your marketing

In summary, I’ve learnt a lot already in these 3 months, mostly on myself. I feel like I am going on a steep learning curve and that’s what I like most. Stay tuned as I will continue to share with you my insights on my transformation into a Knowledge Exchanging Enhancing Networker!

Leave alone the academic executive programs. Go and learn real life leadership! It’s cheaper and better!

What is cheaper? What is better? Going through an academic program to learn how to lead a company or just… do it yourself? Turns out, going out in an entrepreneurial project is less expensive and brings higher value!

I just received an advertisement for an exciting program at Tuck executive education center at Darmouth.

Tuck executive education at Darmouth — Tuck college

It is a nice color booklet including a lot of testimonies from high-ranking Vice-Presidents of large companies. The programs also features some well-known speakers.

Price tag for 3-weeks seminar? 33,000 USD including accommodation; include travel and some costs on top and it comes to a nice 36,000USD or so.

Thing is – that’s quite cheap! Want to go for INSEAD executive MBA? That’s even more hefty – quite more than 100,000 USD!

Companies around the world seem to be sponsoring these programs by registering their promising employees – it is also for them a way to retain them, of course. Isn’t it also a way to keep them in the Industrial Age?

Now let’s look at it in another way. Wouldn’t it be better to give these 100,000 USD to the person and tell them that they have 1-2 years to create a startup and learn by themselves, hands-on, what they need to learn about themselves and building a great company?

When I did my financial projections for my start-up service company, I figured out what my financial risk was, compared to staying in my cozy employed status. I am still relatively young, and I believe the entrepreneurial experience can only increase my visibility, my network and my employability; thus I suppose that I can find a job easily if I decide so. This taken into account, I will earn less, at the start, than being employed; and I have had to commit some funds as start-up capital. So I calculated that my exposure over 2 years (the time I give myself to decide whether that will work for me or not) was 50,000 – 100,000 USD, maybe worst case 130,000 USD – in relative terms, compared to a situation where I stayed employed and I save some money.

So, for the same kind of investment – and it is not money out of my pocket, but the possibility that I might get a bit less money than if I stayed in my executive career – I get a fantastic hands-on education. It is also a similar type of time-investment as most executives MBAs are one year full-time or two years part-time.

And there is a bonus too… if my entrepreneurial venture works, the sky is the limit: not only do I get the education and the experience, much more fun on a daily basis, I might also get a positive return in the form of a great value creation for my clients, myself and my company!

So, my conclusion was simple: dump the academic executive education. Go instead in the real world and figure out how to create and run a company from scratch. For the same price you’ll learn more about yourself, about leading, marketing, selling, networking, than in any kind of academic environment. You’ll be more engaged, focused. Just read books by the teachers of these executive programs to complete your education, that’s all!

It won’t cost you more money. It will bring you much more value in all its dimensions. Do it – get the experience in the real world!

The real story of K.E.E.N.’s motivation

The K.E.E.N. is not anymore motivated by money. She wants to have fun, to bring something to the world, to prove herself.

One of the best stories I found is the story of the development of Apple’s graphing calculator.

Apple's graphing application credits — Apple's graphing calculation application

Or, how two engineers, against all odds, against Apple itself, have worked hidden for a number of months in Apple’s offices, unpaid, to create a great product.

What was their motivation? Let’s use Daniel Pink’s Drive book framework:

Autonomy: they did what they wanted to do, deciding by themselves what they would do and how
Mastery: this project allowed them to show how good they were in programming
Purpose: they wanted to create a product so great people computers could not ship without it

Why did they succeed? They were supported by the informal organization; they had a tribe of supporters; their enthusiasm and sense of purpose did communicate to others.

While this was all developed against the will of Apple’s managers, they were clever enough to see the interest when the product finally came out. That would certainly not happen in many organizations!

When I continue to see large organizations that think that they can retain and motivate people just by giving them money (or, the expectation of getting more money sometime in the future), I just see a total misunderstanding of the world they are living in.

The K.E.E.N. is not any more motivated by carrot and stick. She is motivated by challenge, a deep sense of purpose and her community. When will the standards of organization leadership change to accommodate this new reality?

Video of the month: insights by Seth Godin on the K.E.E.N. skills – and the importance of failure

Building on failure is another skill of the K.E.E.N. This interview of Seth Godin is a real eye-opener on the power of failure, and in general, the skills of the K.E.E.N.

Seth gives also deep insights on the new world that is awaiting us: remember – the concept of climbing the career ladder is bust !

Find other inspiring resources and videos in the Fourth Revolution Resource Center, in the page on K.E.E.N. – related resources.

How to create a great venture: have a scaling plan from the beginning

In a previous post we discussed the differences between Freelancer and Entrepreneur.

fractal hand - symbol of scalability — How will you scale?

The fundamental difference is about succeeding in scaling the activity.

Scalability is difficult. In the book Founders at work: stories of startups’ early days, which accounts many stories of IT and internet startups, most if not all stories revolve about the problem of physical scaling, e.g. servers and databases. When a service becomes successful, a single server is not enough; you need more, and then the scalability problems start, because you need to synchronize everything seamlessly. Those startups that succeeded managed their scaling problem quickly and efficiently enough.

Similarly, many startups need to overcome the process scalability problem: how to reproduce, or model, a successful pattern of work set by the founder.

Because scaling is indeed a very difficult problem, some people just decide it is better to avoid it. For example, in the field of consulting, Alan Weiss (author of “million dollar consulting” and many other bestsellers) is adamant that it is much better to work for one’s own rather than bother trying to manage others or trying to scale into a full-fledged consulting practice. He prefers to have alliances and subcontractors when he needs more production power.

The problem is that by avoiding the scaling issue, you will never effectively build an entity that will have a life of its own (you will never be an ‘Entrepreneur’). You will not benefit from the value of leveraging a group of diverse talents to achieve a given goal. You will not be able to spread geographically, or to touch a large number of people with your great service or message. In brief, you will fall short of your potential impact on the world.

So, scalability is a problem that should be dealt with upfront, together with the business plan or other planning considerations for the new venture. A scaling plan needs to be put in place so that the infrastructure, the organization, the processes, take into account scalability from the beginning.

Don’t shunt this step out of the preparation. Work out your scaling plan today!

A surprisingly easy way to improve your brain’s cognitive capabilities

Look at this guy. Right now he is improving the capabilities… of his brain!

treadmill exercise — ready to exercise your brain?

Well, that’s what this article from the New York Times, “How exercise benefits the brain” says.

One of the most useful discoveries of the Fourth Revolution period is our understanding of how our body and our brain are interlinked. It has huge consequences explained in the Fourth Revolution book, and also in the Fourth Revolution Manifesto part VII (p16 and following).

I have been raised in a very rational household where the brain capabilities were praised and the body was discounted as some inevitable and annoying appendix. The thing is that there are more and more proofs that our body participates significantly to our intelligence and our cognitive abilities. Our emotions (bodily reactions) do in fact influence our actions – for our good most of the time. And we know that our posture influences our mood and our receptiveness to others.

I have now the discipline of doing some easy deep breathing exercises in the morning for only 5mins – and it really changes my day. When do you start having routines acting on your body to work on your mood and your cognitive capabilities?

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