mart

Speople
Digital generations bring knowledge to life

Volume 1
Issue 1
APRIL 2009

p di g i t a l’
ow n u
ac t of ‘gr
o tt o n im p
Tapsc
The GREAT
Obama
Effect THINK-OFF
Be a survivor
You can even thrive
in hard times
Power of ‘been there’

Me Smart?
You’re kidding!
You are what you think

To transfer knowledge, older gens need to catch up digital

 Once upon
a time
there was
a prince
. . . whose knowledge capabilities were trapped inside his own skin.

Along came Smar t People

and the world was never the same.

10 kisses sold here for $ 50 $ 25 USD

Limited time only

Smart People magazine is a new media publication

awakening in you the power of knowledge much
sought after by employers worldwide. This power
has always been there but the Web has multiplied
it a million times and, unknowingly, you are using
your smarts (and those of others) every day – living,
learning, choosing, working.
Wake up to the power.
Subscribe now: www.smartpeoplemagazine.com
Available in three formats: Online flipblook, html and pdf
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Volume 1
Issue 1
APRIL 2009
LIVING
6 Taking control: knowing, To improve your memory, talk to
learning deciding
In the digital world, the knowledge
factor is way bigger than corporate
knowledge management.
7 Where’s the bus?
One rainy night two students
develop an online tracking system so
you can ask your PDA.
8 Slumdog Millionaire
Oscar winner resonates with viewers
in a time of economic uncertainty
and the power of knowledging.
Also in this issue
Eight norms 3
Smart People profile 32
Lukas Laubscher rose from
humble waiter to general
manager by listening,
thinking, catering to the
little ones.
The Knowledge Factor 39
Cover story
4 ‘Me Smart?’ You are
what you think
9 Be a survivor Thoughts and beliefs create
Your new job description involves your reality. What you
more than just looking for another believe leads to what and
job. Time for strategic self- how you think.
improvement.
10 Watch your language
yourself in terms of what you left
undone, not what you did.
11 Apron strings keep women
out of math fields
In order to have flexibility outside
of work – to raise children for one
– women reject math-intensive
careers, even when they’re good in
math.
13 Filling the knowledge gaps
Better knowledge flow can help
minimize – or even prevent –
manmade or natural disasters.
14 The power of ‘been there’
A phone call from a friend saved his
life and started a company to help
others take control of their
health.
22 Don Tapscott (Grown Up Digital)
World’s most knowledgeable authority on the Digital
Generation says they are champions at knowledge
sharing and collaboration.
SMART PEOPLE 1
SMART PEOPLE

CHOOSING CHOOSING

16 President Obama 17 Politics 2.0 20 Death of a

fights Obama captured 70 percent salesman
of the young largely through
for The shift
a digital campaign. He’s
Blackberry America’s first Internet in the
We had better be president. power of
prepared for a White knowledge
House with an entirely from the
new way of working. seller to the
buyer has sales pros taking a new
look at the customer.

LEARNING
27 Great American 28 The creative economy 30 Online centers connect
Think-off Entrepreneur digitally disadvantaged
Little town in Minnesota Dave Lewis Britain tries to bridge the online
asks the world “Is it ever still thinks social divide by connecting them
wrong to do the right differently to Web sites, blogs,
thing?” It’s America’s in a world forums, videos,
premier amateur where digital galleries
philosophy contest. everyone and radio.
gets to play
in new
places.

WORKING
34 Facing the 36 Ban bullying 38 Jobs galore
new gens Nine out of 10 British employees are In spite of the economy – and high
To transfer victims which not only hurts people unemployment – there’s a shortage
existing but plays havoc with the work of knowledge workers but you can
knowledge, the environment. take advantage of the situation
old gens need to to leverage
catch up digital yourself into
– understand and a Smart People
connect with the job.
new gens.

2 SMART PEOPLE
 SMART PEOPLE

About Smart People

Following the eight norms of our readers
The editorial policy of Smart People magazine follows the “Eight
Norms of Net Geners” as described by Don Tapscott in his book
Publisher
Grown Up Digital. We include Digital Pioneers and Catching Up
Jerry Ash smart.guy1@verizon.net Digitals.
Managing editor
This is a new media publication in every sense of the word. It
Michele Ash mlinnash@verizon.net is published online using the interactive channels of Web 2.0 to
Technology by
enable ‘prosumers’ – people who want to have a hand in shaping the
Boris Jaeger boris.jaeger@web.de magazine – to collaborate on content and direction.
Graphic design by
The Eight Norms we use as our guidelines are:
Associated Professional Services Freedom: Net Geners demand the freedom to choose. The more the
designer_aps@verizon.net
better. The Internet has enabled that right and we eagerly compete in
Social network hosts that environment.
Facebook Ning Customization: The magazine will continue to evolve as Smart
Daniel Delgado Jerry Ash
People representatives host discussion groups in the social networks
Linkedin Twitter and advocate changes in the magazine.
Skip Boettger Jack Ring
John Veitch Alice MacGillivray Scrutiny: We expect smart people to examine our value and
MySpace Xing determine whether our magazine is unique and worth time and
Alan O’Neill Boris Jaeger money. And, we expect to be continually tested.
HR and Learning Integrity: To earn your trust, Smart People must deliver quality,
Noreen Kelly relevancy and truth by sharing the best of knowledge and
information from the most reliable of sources.
Entire contents copyrighted, 2009, by Associated Collaboration: Smart People magazine has been developed in
Professional Services, publisher. All rights are collaboration with social networkers in an open, online worksite.
reserved. Contents may not be republished (in print
or electronically) without permission of the publisher. Our prosumers continue to be our ‘board of directors.’
Opinions expressed are those of the writers and may Entertainment: We learn and we do our best when we’re having
not represent the opinion of Associated Professional fun. Smart People magazine is deliberately quick and lively and full
Services or Smart People magazine. of meaning, all at once.
Smart People magazine Speed: No one ever said magazines were speedy. But they’ll say it
Associated Professional Services
1811 Atrium Drive about this one. The magazine may be a periodical, but the flow of
Sun City Center, Florida 33573 conversation is now.
Phone: 813.634.4397
Innovation: There’s never been anything like Smart People
magazine. We dare to be different because we think differently
and we urge our readers to think differently too. We heed the Eight
www.smartpeoplemagazine.com Norms because we believe in them.

Tom Davenport David Gurteen Alice MacGillivray Robert Wendover The Smart People Magazine Board of Directors is being carefully and
Information Knowledge Smart People Generational
Technology Management Networkers Studies methodically constructed to assure broad representation of the personal
and professional interests of our audience, ranging from experts to
ordinary smart people. We invite suggestions and assistance. Contact
Jerry Ash: smart.guy1@verizon.net

EDITORIAL BOARD

SMART PEOPLE 3
COVER STORY

Thoughts and
beliefs create
your reality. True.
‘Me smart? You’re kidding!’
What you believe
leads to what and
You are what you think
how you think
. . . which leads By Alex and David Bennet patterns of neuronal consider there are about 100
to your creation Mountain Quest Institute connections and synapse billion neurons in your brain.
and sharing of strengths – can change the The brain has a high
knowledge . . . I can’t possibly be smart, physical structure of your degree of plasticity; it has the
which defines
you think. If that’s what you brain. But beware; this is a capacity to change in response
assume, you’re right. You’re two-way street. Changes in to experience and learning.
what you
not smart. Do you know why? the neural physiology of your It’s designed to co-evolve with
perceive as
Because you don’t believe you’re brain also affect the thoughts its environment – the perfect
possible . . . and
smart! That’s all there is to it. in your mind. What does that instrument for adapting and
leads to your Henry Ford got it right years mean? Well, first off, it means readapting to the increasing
actions. ago. If you think you can, you you’ve got to keep your brain Change, Uncertainty,
can. If you think you can’t, you healthy. Stop. That’s a lot on Complexity and Anxiety
can’t. the table all at once. Let’s (CUCA) that results. And even
Ford’s statement is break it down a bit. when simple information
now backed up with new comes into your brain, it
discoveries in neuroscience. Mind or brain? What’s creates a physical alteration of
And there’s more, much the difference? It’s like the the structure of neurons. This
more. You’ve got to watch what relationship between the is how you learn.
you’re thinking as well as what waves of the ocean and the
you believe. water in the ocean. The waves Learning? As long as you
Your are patterns; the water is stay alive, you are learning;
thoughts particles. Similarly, the mind the more you learn, the more
– that is, represents the patterns created you can learn. Information is
by neuronal firings, their continuously entering the
synaptic connections and brain through all of your
the strengths between the senses from the external
synaptic spaces. The brain is world. This information is
the atoms and molecules then mixed and integrated
that make up those – a process called associative
patterns. Since you patterning – with all the
can’t see your own information previously stored
mind’s patterns, to in your memory, patterns
you they are your that represent all your
thoughts, ideas, experiences, thoughts and
visions, feelings feelings. Quite literally, almost
and more. A single everything you’ve learned in
thought might be life. However, those incoming
represented by a signals are being captured in
network of a million invariant form.
neurons with each For example, that means
neuron connected only part of an image of your
to 5,000 other friend is being stored. That’s
neurons! all that’s needed. The mind/
Not as ridiculous brain develops robustness
as it sounds and deep knowledge
when you (understanding, meaning,
4 SMART PEOPLE
 COVER STORY
insights and anticipation of done before, acquiring new neurons! You don’t need to Knowledge is
the results of actions) from its knowledge. It doesn’t matter worry about overloading your the capacity
capacity to use past learning how old you are – 20 or 70; mind by learning too much (potential or
and memories to complete you can still learn and learn – that’s not a smart way to go. actual) to take
incoming information. This well if, and only if, you really In the course of your lifetime, effective action.
marvelous system allows you want to. your mind/brain will have Your mind/
to use what you know and But for goodness sakes, created many more patterns brain learns
what you’ve learned in varied don’t feel too stressed about with their connections than continuously
and uncertain situations it! Emotions impact your there are particles in the
in anticipation
– something that in the future learning, with maximum Universe.
of your future
only a biological computer learning occurring when So we’re back to the
could hope to accomplish. actions.
there is a moderate level of question we started with . . .
arousal. A little bit of stress me smart?
What about my DNA? is okay or, even better, if you And the answer is . . . it’s
DNA blueprints are not set in feel good about what you’re your choice.
concrete at the birth of the cell learning, you learn more. By
Alex and David Bennet are founders
as was once thought. Genes do the way, the same thing is of Mountain Quest Institute, a
not determine who we are or true for physical exercise. If research and retreat center situated
who we will become. Through you don’t want to do it but in the Allegheny Mountains of West
studies in epigenetics – which you do it anyway, there’s not Virginia – mountainquestinstitute.
literally means control above much gain. That’s just the way com
genetics – it is now recognized it is.
that genes cannot be expressed
without influence from the The unconscious. You
immediate environment of the may have realized by now Three myths that keep you dumb
cell. Thus nature, nurture and how much stuff is going into
our own personal choices all your unconscious. A healthy Myth #1: I am a product of my genes. FALSE. Many
play significant roles in our mind/brain is a powerful, genes are turned on and off by the environment -
learning and development. self-organizing, complex physical or learning. This can be likened to a dance
Our thoughts, feelings and adaptive learning system between two partners intricately involved as a
actions determine our success, (quite a mouthful, but it does couple in winning the big prize. Who do you choose
while our genes playing a mean something) that is to let lead?
smaller role. only limited by the quality
and quantity of incoming Myth #2: I’m too dumb to learn. FALSE. If you’re
Mind health. There information and your own alive, you are learning. The mind/brain was created
is a direct relationship choices. to help you learn in order for you to survive. If
between your health and The really good news you’re not taking advantage of that learning, that
increased levels of growth is your brain doesn’t take is a matter of choice rather than capability. Note
and integration in your mind. Starbucks breaks and doesn’t the role of nurturing and the environment have
When you exercise your body, require sleep. It’s on call 24/7. significantly more impact on learning capacity than
you increase the amount of Focused on your learning previously thought.
blood that’s flowing through and well-being, day and night
your brain which boosts your it goes about discovering Myth #3: As you grow older your mental powers
brain power. But there’s more to associations among what you decrease from loss of neurons. FALSE. As long as
it than that . . . your mind needs already know and all that you use your brain and continue to actively think
exercising too, just like the rest stuff you send in through – barring age-related disease – your brain capacity
of your body. Circuits in your your senses, building patterns will sustain a good capability. While neurons
brain that go unused grow that might help you take continue to die as you age, active brains also
weaker and eventually die. the best actions tomorrow. continue to create neurons in several areas. Carl
The very best mind exercise is Imagine the amount of social Jung did some of his best work between the ages
new learning – thinking about networking continuously of 73 and 83.
and trying things you’ve never underway among your

SMART PEOPLE 5
LIVING
LIVING Taking control
Knowing, learning, deciding on the home front
By Jerry Ash began to rise. “Humph,” I
Smart People magazine said. “I’m much smarter than
I think.”
In the digital world, the Then I began to realize
knowledge factor is a lot more something else about my
than a new critical success knowledge power – whenever
factor for the business world. I didn’t know something, I
It’s way bigger. could find out. Just Google
I can’t believe how smart it. “How come the weird
I’ve become over the past 20 scoring in tennis? Like love
years. I’ve learned so much instead of zero?” Answer: The
and when I need to know French started it by using the
something, the very need word oeuf, meaning egg (as
sometimes triggers the answer in goose egg or zero). Is that
unknowingly stored in the really true? I don’t know. But
dusty corners of my mind. it’s a great story on the tennis
Same with everyone. court!
My wife was watching I’ve also noticed how
a quiz show on television much more I depend on the
one night and blurted out an Internet for information and
answer. Then she turned to knowledge to help me make
me. “I didn’t know I knew important decisions about
that!” she said. “And, I don’t things I used to leave in
know how I knew that!” the hands of ‘experts’ – like
Well, she’s the trivia medical decisions. In the old
queen, but I began to notice in days I would go to the doctor
my own self some of the same when I didn’t feel good.
qualities and my self-image “How do you feel?”
“Not good, Doc.”
“What are your
symptoms?” he would ask.
In the end he would tell
me what he thought I had
and prescribe some pills.
Faithfully, I took them.
Today, when I have
an ailment, I ask myself
about the symptoms and
then either Google it or go
to my trusted health
information Web
sites. By the
time I get to
the doctor’s
office, I’m
already an informed patient
and we have a consult, just
like two doctors. And, most
6 SMART PEOPLE
importantly, I make an
informed decision about my
own health care!
The knowledge factor is
not unique to me and it’s not
peculiar to the young who
have grown up digital. We use
the power of knowledge in
almost every aspect of human
life and we do it a thousand
times better than before.
The consequences: dramatic
changes in the patterns of
human life.
Another example: It’s time
to buy a new car. Before, we
relied on ads and salesmen.
This second largest purchase
most of us make was based
primarily on impulse driven
mostly by someone else.
Consumer Reports has filled
that void for many years, but
now we have so much more.
We cut out the middleman
by doing our own research
online, coming to our own
conclusions. We use blogs
and discussion boards and
networks to know the real
skinny.
When we walk into the
dealership, we cut the sales
pitch short. “Tut, tut, old
man. I’ll tell you what I want.”
Heck, we may not even go to
a dealership. I just bought my
first motorcycle online!
So, there you have it. The
thinking behind Smart People
magazine’s living section.
Enjoy, learn, improve your
knowledgeability.

­­
Where’s
the bus?
One rainy night leads
two students to solve the
problem
It’s a question heard at
countless bus stops: “Have
you seen the number 48 go
by?”
Cold, impatient bus
riders stamp their feet,
check their watches, and
wonder if that bus is ever
going to come. But in Seattle, a any phone.
cell phone and the ingenuity of “A robotic voice
two University of Washington
(UW) students has come to the
rescue.
Brian Ferris, a doctoral
student in computer science,
spent one too many rainy
nights waiting for the bus.
“I’m an avid bus rider,”
said Ferris. “If you ride the
bus enough, you spend a lot of
time waiting; even on the best
of days buses can run late.”
OneBusAway keeps
tabs on the bus
Over the past year and one-
half, Ferris and Kari Watkins,
a UW doctoral student in
civil and environmental
engineering, have created a
tool, OneBusAway, that allows
bus riders to use a cell phone,
iPhone or computer to keep
tabs on their buses.
OneBusAway has
processed 30,000 automated
phone calls since launch in
June, 2008. The Web site gets
an average of 1,000 hits a day. frustration, says Watkins,
People have found out about
the tool on blogs, from stickers issues. She and Ferris met
at a few UW campus bus stops, through a transit blog and
from a mention in a Seattle
magazine and by word-of-
mouth. To use OneBusAway in
Seattle, just dial 206.456.0609 wait, they think twice as much
from
answers: “Where is your bus?
Let’s find out.” Users then
punch in their stop number if
they know it already, or follow
the prompts to look it up.
A computer checks a
database of current bus
locations, and the voice
announces how long until
your bus arrives. Users can
also access the system online
at www.OneBusAway.org or
by using an iPhone.
Most bus stops have a
timetable of when the bus is
supposed to come, and digital
screens at some central hubs
show projected arrivals. But
most lonely bus riders waiting
by the curb, scanning the
horizon for any sign of a bus,
have no idea how long they
have to wait.
Knowing makes waiting
seem half as long
Research shows that
removing uncertainty cuts
who works on transportation
combined their expertise to
create OneBusAway.
“When people have to
LIVING
time
is passing.
So if you’re standing
at a bus stop for five minutes,
you perceive that time to Brian Ferris
be 10 minutes,” Watkins checks in with
said. Knowing the wait time OneBusAway
changes the situation. “If I
to see when
know ahead of time, I can grab
his bus will be
that cup of coffee and be back
arriving.
in time to catch my bus. That
kind of information makes
taking public transit so much
more livable.”
OneBusAway is an
offshoot of MyBus, an online
service Ferris calls “the great
granddaddy.” MyBus, created
in mid-1990s by UW electrical
engineering professor Daniel
Dailey, allows people to type in
a bus route and stop number to
get anticipated arrival times. It
combines odometer readings,
which regularly get beamed
back to dispatch, and route
information to estimate each
bus’ current position. MyBus
forms the basis for municipal
bus-tracking services in Seattle
and Chicago.
Ferris and Watkins set out
to expand on MyBus to make a
more user-friendly tool people
NEXT PAGE
SMART PEOPLE 7
LIVING

Slumdog Millionaire ­­Where’s the bus?

‘Poverty porn’ or ‘power of popular culture’? CONTINUED feature now offered by King
Slumdog Millionaire, the new film from British
County Metro and Google
director Danny Boyle showcasing a star-studded could access while away from
Transit.
cast, continues its steady accumulation of movie their computers. So far Ferris,
awards – including seven Oscars and a best The result is a trip
a self-described “transit nerd,”
film award from the British Academy of Film and planner that would adjust its
has invested about $70 of his
Television Arts. recommendation depending
own money to buy the domain
And, while the movie about a poor orphan in on whether buses are
name and professional voice-
Mumbai who competes on a television quiz show running on time. Yet another
generating software. The
has also been scoring big at the box office, some prototype finds businesses
phone number connects to a
in India are calling the film an example of ‘slum that can be easily accessed in
tourism’ or ‘poverty porn.’ free service that relays phone
a single bus trip. That’s the
But, according to Temple English professor calls over the Internet.
idea that originally inspired
Priya Joshi, Slumdog’s message is one of Running on shoestring, the name OneBusAway.
globalization and the power of popular culture to “Maybe I’d like to go out
prayer and an occasional beer
spread new ideas. to eat, say Chinese food, but
“I’m kind of running
“In India, members of the middle and upper I don’t care what restaurant
classes, who want to think of themselves as this on a shoestring and a
prayer. I’ve had people offer I can get to as long as I can
sophisticated, global elites, were shocked by
Slumdog’s depiction of poverty, but it has not to buy me a beer, anything get there easily on the bus,”
stopped them from flocking to the theaters,” said they can do to help,” Ferris Watkins said. “The goal is to
Joshi. said. “Now that it’s becoming one day have a whole bunch
Slumdog has been a commercial success popular, a lot of people of different programs that
in India with the film drawing capacity crowds are becoming would make transit easier to
to both the English and the Hindi versions. Joshi dependent on it.” navigate.”
observes that the Indian responses to Slumdog fall Ferris
into two categories: those who find the film depicts Dreaming a suite of tools
programs the for any transit agency
an Indian underbelly of violence and poverty that site in his spare
they’d rather not expose to the West, and those Eventually the two
time, maintains a envision offering a suite of
viewers who immediately get the film and
OneBusAway blog, bus-riding tools that any
see it as a metaphor for the times.
According to Joshi, Slumdog and scans other transit agency could connect
Millionaire may best be compared to blogs and to its database to encourage
Cinema Paradiso. “In the same way Twitter more people to use public
that Cinema Paradiso paid homage to feeds transit. Someday buses
the transformative power of Hollywood for people may be equipped with GPS
movies of the 1950s, Slumdog experiencing antennas that would allow
testifies to the power of Bollywood’s problems. He’s even better tracking.
blockbusters from the 1970s.” gradually adding For Ferris, he says
The most interesting question more features. this project fits with
for Joshi, however, might be why Anyone can write his philosophy of using
a film filled with maiming, murder and the torture features for the open-source
of children, has won the hearts of Americans? “I technology to support social
tool. One person wrote a patch causes, and it’s a chance to
guess the movie has resonated with an American
to allow you to view two create something that people
audience in this time of economic uncertainty
because it captures, and assuages a vulnerability different routes on the same like to use. But that’s not
we all feel,” said Joshi. “We might not all become computer screen, so you can the only reason he built the
quiz show millionaires, but at least we can feel load one page to see which service.
good watching someone else get the moolah and bus will come first. “I’m a big user of
the girl.” More features are in the OneBusAway,” he said. “I
Joshi is the prizewinning author of In Another works. Ferris and Watkins like to know when my bus
Country: Colonialism, Culture, and the English have built a prototype that is going to come as much as
Novel in India. integrates real-time tracking anybody else does.”
with the popular trip-planner

8 SMART PEOPLE
 LIVING

Be a survivor
You can even thrive in hard times
By Carol Kinsey Goman, PhD
Kinsey Consulting Services

With many of us feeling the pain of an economic slowdown, it’s

important to be aware of – and proactive about – possible changes
in our organizations. While we can’t control the economy or the
other forces of change, we can position ourselves to survive and
even thrive in these challenging times.
Here are a dozen tips to consider, whether you feel secure or think your job may soon disappear:
1. Don’t get caught unaware. Too 4. Keep a positive attitude. You 7. Read the body language of your
often, workers fail to recognize never know when a seemingly boss. Only a small part of what you
the early signs of looming layoffs, negative situation may turn out to subconsciously interpret from what
downsizing or shutdowns and are be for the best. If your job changes people say to you comes from the
caught by surprise when they find or disappears, it’s an excellent words they use. You get most of the
themselves without a job. Keep chance to learn something new, message (and all of the emotional
your eyes open for signs of trouble: discover untapped skills and meet nuance behind the words)
Notice if there are large-scale new people. If you keep a positive from vocal tone, pacing, facial
layoffs throughout your industry; attitude, you’ll be able to rally expressions and body language.
if new competitors are increasingly your energy toward furthering Now is the time to hone this innate
crowding the market; or if demand your career – regardless of the but latent ability and turn it into a
for your company’s product or circumstances. survival skill.
service is dropping.
5. Stay in the game. In tough 8. Get a life. It’s a fact documented
2. Imagine the worst-case scenario times, your first reaction may be to by my 25 years of research:
and make a plan. What if you lost hunker down. Nothing could be less people with interests beyond their
your job? What would you do? helpful. This is a time to become professions and organizations are
When you examine and confront very visible in your organization. more resilient under stress and
the situation, you can consider In a recent survey of 150 business more effective on the job. From
possible options. At the very least, executives, 49 percent said they art to music to sports to friends
you will feel that you have more consider an employee’s dedication and family, you’ll deal better with
control over your reactions if that to the company’s mission and work-related transition and trauma
scenario should indeed occur. values when downsizing. So when your life includes a healthy
Here’s the trick: Once you have volunteer for projects, take credit counterbalance.
a plan of action, stop focusing for your success, and speak up. And
9. Never stop learning. Now
on the potential downside and if you can come up with ways your
and in the future, your value to
start searching for potential organization can save money – now
any organization depends less
opportunities. is your time to really shine!
on what you know, and more on
3. Neutralize your fear. 6. Watch what you don’t say. how quickly you can update your
Neuroscience tells us that when the Use positive body language in knowledge to respond to changing
fear system of the brain is active, meetings: maintain good eye conditions. If you haven’t already
exploratory activity and risk-taking contact, sit forward in your chair, done so, now is the perfect time to
are turned off. You can start to and lean slightly toward the person join a professional association, talk
neutralize that system by avoiding who is speaking. All of these are with colleagues, and read trade
people who are all doom and gloom nonverbal signals that you are magazines in your field to update
about the economy and by turning engaged and energized. your knowledge of trends and
off the constant barrage of bad news issues.
from the media. NEXT PAGE

SMART PEOPLE 9
LIVING

Thrive in hard times

Watch your language CONTINUED

What I was doing vs. what I did 10. Network, network, network.
First, understand the importance
If you want to improve your memory, you should carefully consider how you of social capital. Capital is defined
frame your past actions in your mind. as “accumulated wealth, especially
In a new study reported in the Journal of the Association for as used to produce more wealth.”
Psychological Science, psychologists William Hart Social capital is the wealth (or
of the University of Florida and Dolores Albarracín benefit) that exists because of your
from the University of Illinois at Urbana- social relationships. Think of social
Champaign reveal the way a statement capital as the value created by your
is phrased (and specifically, how the connections to others. There is no
verbs are used) affects our memory more valuable commodity in today’s
of an event being described and may volatile business environment.
also influence our behavior.
In these experiments, a group of 11. Take time to mourn. The
volunteers was interrupted prior to beginning of anything new
finishing a word game and were then asked to always means the death of the old.
describe their behavior using the imperfective Restructuring means changing the
(e.g., “I was solving word puzzles”) or perfective way work gets done and walking
(e.g., “I solved word puzzles”). away from the competence and
The volunteers then completed a memory confidence you gained under the old
test about the word game itself. system. Losing a job means leaving
It turns out the volunteers who had a workplace, friends and mentors.
described their behavior using the imperfective With every ending comes a period
were able to recall more specific details of of mourning where it is natural (and
their experience compared to volunteers healthy) to grieve for what you have
who had described their behavior in the lost. In fact, doing so will help you let
perfective aspect. go of the past so that you can more
The volunteers writing in the quickly move on to whatever the
imperfective aspect also performed better on future holds.
a second word game and were more willing to
complete the task than did volunteers who used 12. Go for it! An uncertain future
the perfective to describe their experience. can be stressful and traumatic. But
The authors surmise that when we think about it can also be exhilarating and fun.
our past behavior in the imperfective (e.g., what we Make a conscious choice to embrace
were doing), we tend to imagine that behavior as change as an incredible adventure.
ongoing (and not completed yet). This enables us to Savor it. Exploit it. Enjoy it!
easily think about what went into that behavior and Carol Kinsey Goman, PhD, is an author and
may help us improve performance on similar tasks in keynote speaker who addresses association,
the future. government, and business audiences around
These findings may be relevant to behavioral the world. Her latest book and program topic
therapy. They suggest that “decreasing the is The Nonverbal Advantage – Secrets
frequency of unhealthy behaviors might be facilitated by discussing these and Science of Body Language at Work.
behaviors in terms of “what I did.” In contrast, increasing the frequency For more information, contact Carol by
of healthy behaviors might be facilitated by discussing these behaviors in phone: 510.526.1727, email: CGoman@CKG.
com, or through her Web sites: www.CKG.
terms of “what I was doing.”
com and www.NonverbalAdvantage.com.
For a copy of the article and access to other Psychological
Science research findings, contact Barbara Isanski at bisanski@
psychologicalscience.org

10 SMART PEOPLE

Glass ceiling?
Apron strings keep women out of math fields
Women don’t choose
careers in math-intensive
fields, such as computer
science, physics, technology,
engineering, chemistry and
higher mathematics, because
they want the flexibility to
raise children, or because
they prefer other fields of
science that are less math-
intensive – not because they
lack mathematical ability,
according to a new study.
The study, an integrative
analysis of 35 years of research
on sex differences in math,
offers explanations for why
women are underrepresented
in math-intensive science
careers. The findings
appear in the March issue
of Psychological Bulletin,
published by the American
Psychological Association.
Women are
underrepresented
in math-intensive
science careers.
Researchers from
Cornell University reviewed
more than 400 articles and
book chapters to reconcile
conflicting evidence on why
math-proficient women are
underrepresented in math-
intensive fields such as
engineering; why they choose advance very far due to the
less math-intensive fields (such need for greater flexibility and
as biology, medicine, dentistry the demands of parenting and
and veterinary medicine); and caregiving, says co-author
why when they do choose
math-intensive careers, they
are more likely to drop out as
they advance.
LIVING
“Career preferences and Women today compose
lifestyle needs largely dictate approximately 50 percent
why women aren’t choosing of medical school classes;
physics or engineering as their however, despite these gains,
profession,” says lead author women who enter academic
Stephen J. Ceci, PhD. medicine are less likely
than men to be promoted or
Timing of child bearing serve in leadership posts, the
authors said.
coincides with the most As of 2005, only 15 percent
demanding periods of a of full professors and 11
percent of department chairs
woman’s career were women. Non-math fields
are also affected: for example,
Women with advanced
only 19 percent of the tenure
math abilities choose non-
track faculty in the top 20
math fields more often than
philosophy departments are
men with advanced math
women.
abilities. They also drop out
of scientific fields – especially
math and physical science
– at higher rates than do men,
particularly as they advance,
says Ceci,
A major reason why
women are underrepresented
not only in math-intensive
fields but also in senior
leadership positions in most
fields is that many women
choose to have children, and
the timing of childrearing
coincides with the most
demanding periods of their
career, such as trying to get
tenure or working exorbitant
hours to get promoted.
Further, if women enter Hormonal, brain and other
these fields, they are more biological sex differences did
likely to drop out before they not emerge as primary factors
explaining why women were
underrepresented in science
careers.
And the authors found
Wendy M. Williams, PhD. studies on social and cultural
“These are choices that all effects to be inconsistent and
women, but almost no men, inconclusive.
are forced to make.” NEXT PAGE
SMART PEOPLE 11
LIVING
Glass ceiling?
CONTINUED
Much of the evidence on
discrimination was dated or
anecdotal, the authors said,
and the effects were not strong
enough to explain women’s
current low numbers in math-
intensive fields. “Even though
institutional barriers and
discrimination exist, these
influences still cannot explain
why women are not entering
or staying in STEM (science,
technology, engineering and
math) careers,” said Ceci.
The evidence did not
show that removal of these
barriers would equalize the
sexes in these fields, especially
given that women’s career
preferences and lifestyle
choices tilt them toward other professionals in science careers
careers such as medicine and
biology over mathematics,
computer science, physics and math classes, the men devoted
engineering.
Men did outscore women
on spatial ability tests, a
measure that predicts later
mathematics achievement
but, said the authors, this still lead to more productivity and
doesn’t account for the low
numbers of women in the
STEM fields.
Moreover, studies showing the only professions affected
men’s scoring in the top 1 to
0.1 percent on the SAT-M and
GRE-Q exams more frequently
than women cannot account
for the low numbers of women well-represented in less
in math-intensive careers.
The evidence shows that
if math ability were solely a
function of sex, there would
be roughly double the number still underrepresented in the
of women in math-intensive
careers compared to what
exists now, assuming a 2:1
male-female ratio at the top
12 SMART PEOPLE
one percent in math ability,
Ceci said. “Women would
comprise 33 percent of the
professorships in math-
intensive fields if it was based
solely on being in the top one
percent of math ability, but
they currently comprise less
than 10 percent.”
Several large surveys
examined in the analysis
found that lifestyle choice had
the largest influence on career
preferences.
If it weren’t for child-
rearing duties, the
male-female ratio
would be much different
at the top.
In a survey of 2,000
33-year-old academic
who were in the top one
percent of their high school
more time to their current job
and said they would devote
even more time in their dream
job compared to the women,
suggesting that this could
promotions.
Science, technology,
engineering and math are not
by women’s career choices, said
the authors.
Several studies showed
that while women are
math-intensive fields, such
as medicine, law, biology,
psychology, dentistry and
veterinary science, they are
top positions of these fields.
They are either not on
tenure track, drop off tenure
track or opt for part-time
positions until their children
get older.
“It appears that the
family-career trade-offs
constitute a major factor in
the dearth of women in fields
such as engineering, physics,
computer science and in
higher-level positions in non
math-related fields,” said Ceci.
“Women who are good
in math seem to have more
career options. Those who are
highly competent in math are
more likely than men to have
high verbal competence, too,
thus opening up the option
of going into the humanities
or law, which may offer more
flexibility in their career
tracks.”
There are ways to remedy
the situation, the authors said.
They suggest that universities,
other institutions and
companies create options for
women with math talents who
want to pursue math-intensive
careers.
These could include
deferred start-up of tenure-
track positions and part-time
work that segues to full-time
tenure-track work for women
who are raising children,
and courtesy appointments
for women unable to work
full-time but who would
benefit from use of university
resources (email, library
resources, grant support) to
continue their research from
home.
Source: “Women’s
Underrepresentation in Science:
Sociocultural and Biological
Considerations,” Stephen J. Ceci,
PhD, Wendy M. Williams, PhD,
and Susan M. Barnett, PhD, Cornell
University; Psychological Bulletin,
Vol. 135, No. 2. Full text of the
article is available at www.apa.org/
journals/releases/bul1352218.pdf
 LIVING

Filling the knowledge gaps

Like Katrina, 9/11, space shuttle Challenger
Disasters, whether man-made or acts of government by enabling and • Awareness campaign and Web
nature, can be prevented or minimized instilling knowledge management presence. To communicate
by better knowledge flow. Seven hundredpractices in government. the serious need for KM and
people in federal government are working Knowledge Management (KM), distribute content “from those
to enable people to share knowledge a discipline that uses management who know to those who need to
sooner, better, more effectively. tools along with culture change and know.”
human enablement, has worked in • Build a knowledge sharing
Is American know-how the private sector. culture in the federal
disappearing from the federal Some agencies have succeeded government. Change the federal
government? Or is it that there’s no at KM, including NASA and the mindset from need to know to
real knowledge sharing system to US Army, but there is no formal need to share.
enable the knowledge of its people federal program. There is no policy,
to flow at the right time and to the standards or direction. There is no
right places. central clearinghouse of lessons
In recent years, federal failures learned or what works.
to share knowledge have resulted in So agencies and departments
disasters, preventable by a word to must spend scarce consulting
the wise. dollars to find their own way,
• Hurricane Katrina: The federal reinventing the wheel in a wasteful
response to the preparation and duplication of effort. To fill this
aftermath of Katrina was marked leadership void, the Federal KM
by now infamous failures to Working Group presents an
communicate. Action Plan calling for formal KM
• 9/11 attacks: The FBI was already governance, with these goals:
investigating foreign students • Establish a Federal Knowledge
learning to fly – but not land Management Center to serve
– large jet planes. as a centralized resource for
• The Space Shuttle Challenger: agencies in carrying out their • Train federal workers in
NASA engineers already knew own knowledge management KM skills. By learning KM
the dangers of freezing the O- efforts. The center will provide competencies, they will also
ring that failed, leading to the consulting and serve as a acquire a deeper understanding
loss of the Challenger. clearinghouse of federal KM and appreciation of the value of
The impaired response to resources, such as software, knowledge sharing.
Hurricane Katrina, the 9/11 disaster expertise and lessons learned. • Meet the challenges of the
and the Challenger explosion • Establish a federal CKO retirement ‘Age Wave.’ KM
all could have been averted. Position. This person, the face includes knowledge retention,
Government must improve its of Federal KM, will coordinate an effort to minimize brain
knowledge sharing networking with federal departments to drain due to the thousands
in order to enable its people to explain the benefits of sharing of retiring baby boomers.
communicate, to share and utilize and collaborating across The other side of the coin,
information and knowledge. agencies. today, is the federal challenge
The Federal Knowledge • KM governance. Enact in recruiting Generation Y
Management Working Group, government-wide policies, employees, who have been
comprised of over 700 federal standards and practices that raised on Web 2.0 and social
employees and contractors, has specify the general direction computing tools.
mounted a campaign to restore and intent of federal knowledge
American know-how to the federal sharing efforts.

SMART PEOPLE 13
LIVING

The power of ‘been there’

A phone call saved my life, inspired a mission
By Keith Schorsch every night. I could no longer doctor urged that I undergo a
Founder and CEO, Trusera dress myself; just lifting my craniotomy (drilling a hole in
arms caused wrenching pain. my skull), insisting I had 48
I remember the day well. My memory began to hours to decide. Thankfully,
I had settled into my seat slip; I began carrying Post-It I decided not to. Still, I was
to watch the Seattle Mariners notes around the house to confused and exhausted.
play on a beautiful August remember why I had entered Ten doctors, 12 weeks.
evening. What could be a certain room. Being with my Still, no diagnosis.
better? one and one-half and three
I was and one-half year old sons Phone call from a friend
enjoying the became unbearable, since I
game when couldn’t filter out noise or be with Lyme Disease:
the vision in touched without pain. “Don’t make the
my left eye My whole world felt
began to blur. upside down. I had always
mistake I made. Get
Two innings prided myself on my ability checked for Lyme.”
later, I heard to think. More than that, my
a ringing brain was a solid chunk of my That’s when a friend
and nearby identity, and my livelihood. called. Her message said, “I
cheering Before the incident I was heard about your symptoms.
sounded like – as a senior executive at I think you have Lyme
someone Amazon.com – contributing disease. I moved to Seattle
was yelling to the company’s early from Connecticut with Lyme,
directly in my growth from $16 million though I didn’t know it. Don’t
ear. Strange, I to $3.2 billion in sales and make the mistake I made. Get
thought. from 90,000 to 35 million checked for Lyme.” So I did.
At home customers. I had doubled That phone call saved my
an hour later, up on time at Harvard life.
the whole left (college and business school). It took six weeks of heavy
side of my Thinking was important to intravenous antibiotics,
face sagged. me. Would I ever be able to injected by my wife twice
“Honey, stop work again? daily, until I had “beaten” the
fooling around,” my wife bugs. The pain had subsided.
said. “What do you mean?” I Finally, I could begin the long
responded. “Half of your face My whole world healing process. Today, I am
is frozen,” she said with a mix felt upside down. I had 100 percent well – if you don’t
of fear and confusion. I looked count a slight sag on the left
in the mirror, and my mind
always prided myself side of my face.
went blank. on my ability to think.
Thus began my battle with The power of ‘been there’
Lyme disease, a debilitating The physical pain and With the mental fog and
disease caused by a tick bite. emotional toll were bad pain under control, a light
Over the next 12 weeks, enough. The confusion began to dawn. It occurred
I became systematically around my conflicting to me that if I had been in a
disabled. Besides the facial diagnoses made it worse. northern New Jersey diner
palsy came excruciating joint The doctors couldn’t figure when the disease presented
pain, causing me to wake out what was wrong with itself, I could have gone to the
screaming three to four times me. One well-regarded cook, the server, or someone

14 SMART PEOPLE

eating dinner near me and
said, “I have the flu and a
weird rash . . . what is going
on?” Nine out of 10 could have
told me to get checked for
Lyme.
The friend who had been
through Lyme disease and
called did what 10 doctors
and 12 weeks could not
– figure out what was wrong.
Her experience had given
her unique expertise. It had
power – the power to change
my outcome and my life.
The power of been there. And
that power was completely
untapped.
How sharing inspired a
company: Trusera
I like to dream, and
I understand the power
of technology. So I began
thinking: How could
the power of technology
unleash the power of shared
experience? How could it
do so in a relevant, credible,
purposeful way?
My answer? Trusera.
Two years ago, I launched a
company – Trusera – to tap
into the power of shared
experience. It’s an online
health network where people
can find and share real world
experience from others who
have been there.
After my illness, I had
begun searching for meaning.
I took stock of all the things
that had happened to me and
realized that though I couldn’t
control what I was given, I
could control what I did with
it.
It felt like connecting
all the dots to what became
Trusera. The personal and
professional paths I’d followed
had converged – working
LIVING
on great consumer ideas Personal experience
in technology at Amazon, has value. Sharing that
McCaw and AT&T Wireless experience has power. The
combined with my personal power to change outcomes
experience and commitment and to change lives. Trusera
to wellness. I realized that has helped me find meaning.
technology could unlock But more importantly, it has
wisdom. unlocked wisdom and insight
After I learned I had Lyme that all can share.
disease, I had tried to find
information online. What
I discovered fell into two
extremes: the same boilerplate
medical description of Lyme
disease on multiple sites,
and a bunch of noise on
message boards and groups,
information that was hard to
read, hard to find, and did not
apply to me.
I had simply wanted to
find half a dozen people in the
greater Northwest who had
been through this: credible
people who had had a similar
experience and had shared
useful insights. But I couldn’t,
so I started a site that enables
others to do so.
What’s gratifying about
Trusera is that it
gives people a voice
and a platform where
they can be heard.
What’s gratifying about
Trusera is that it gives people
a voice and a platform where For the full story of Keith’s battle
they can be heard, and in with Lyme and the inspiration
doing so, it allows them to be for Trusera, hear his video story
advocates for their health or < http://www.trusera.com/
the health of a loved one. health/stories/storyguy/lyme-
Trusera has enabled disease-a-phone-call-saved-my-
people to take control of their life-and-inspired-trusera> or
health and to begin their reach his entries < http://www.
journey on the shoulders of trusera.com/health/users/
others, building off of others’ storyguy>. To learn more about
practical and emotional Trusera visit http://www.trusera.
experience and insights. com/health
SMART PEOPLE 15
CHOOSING
CHOOSING You want my Blackberry?
Obama answers in the words of Charlton Heston
By Neil Olonoff
Federal KM Working Group
A few weeks ago, Washington
was all atwitter with the
news that President Obama
had approximately the
same relationship with his
Blackberry that Charlton
Heston had with the rifle he
hoisted at an National Rifle
Association convention: “You
won’t take this away from me
unless it is from my cold dead
hands!”
The corporate road
warriors watching CNN
from Aero Saarinen-designed
seats in airline clubrooms
immediately got it; hey, he’s
one of us. Meaning digital
native, mobile professional,
wired into the Internet, savvy
grokker of Web 2.0, etc.
All right. But every time
President Obama’s Blackberry
buzzes, it is signaling a
presidential mindset that
goes well beyond a simple
desire to stay in touch with
his friends in Chicago. The
message buzzing on that smart
phone might as well be a paid
political message, not from the
political left or right, but from
our technological future. In
fact, we had better be prepared
for a White House with an
entirely new way of working,
and one that is diametrically
opposed to the Bush style.
Where Bush was closed,
Obama promises to be open.
Where Bush’s science policies
were frequently tinged with
faith and politics, Obama has
pledged to be, um, science
16 SMART PEOPLE
based. And where Bush’s
management style was a
rather traditionalist B-school
“management by objectives”
approach, the Obama
administration seems to be
headed for a much more
expansive, collaborative style.
Or at least that is what we
read in the few tea leaves
strewn by the memos issued
in the first weeks.
Under President Bush,
we spent eight years with
the drapes pulled closed on
We had better be prepared for a White House
with an entirely new way of working
the windows of government.
When AG Alberto Gonzales
was vetted by Congress he
was asked if he would review
the then-infamous Ashcroft
Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) Memo of October
2001. That memo referred
to “Weapons of Mass
Destruction” and Terrorists,
and erred on the side of
caution and secrecy in letting
out information.
Little did we know then
that Gonzales would prove to
be even more of an avoider of
sunlight than was Ashcroft.
Obama wasted little time in
pulling back the drapes and
letting in the sun. Obama’s
version urges agencies to
err on the side of disclosure
rather than secrecy when
they respond to Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA)
requests.
Maybe even more
dramatic than closing the
Guantánamo Bay detention
center, the memo on
Open Government and
Transparency contains an
even more abrupt about
face from the Bush style.
That memo uses the words
collaboration and government
in the same sentence in a
Presidential communication
for the first time in a great
while – perhaps ever.
From a knowledge and
information sharing point
of view, this is a major
milestone. And it comes none
too soon. With an influx
of 100,000 to 250,000 new
workers needed to meet the
demands of administering
the stimulus bill, agencies
are going to need all the
collaborative smarts they can
muster.
Right now, groups such
as the Federal Knowledge
Management Working Group
are trying to identify how
agencies can work smarter
and faster to meet the goals
that may come in a message
sent directly from President
Obama’s Blackberry.
Neil Olonoff is Leader, Federal
Knowledge Management Initiative,
Federal KM Working Group [http://
KM.gov]. Personal profile [http://
www.linkedin.com/in/olonoff].
Blogging [http://FedKM.org]. Email
[olonoff@gmail.com].

Politics 2.0
Effect of America’s first digital president
By Matthew Fraser
and Soumitra Dutta
Thought leaders at INSEAD
Barack Obama’s electoral triumph
was the first American presidential
election won on the Web.
If Franklin Delano Roosevelt
was America’s first radio president
and John F. Kennedy was the
country’s first television president,
Barack Obama is its first Internet
president.
This watershed was largely
overlooked during the presidential
campaign. While most pundits were
focused on the question of race,
speculating whether Americans
would elect a black man to the
White House, Obama was busy
defeating his rival thanks to his
powerful techno-demographic
appeal. His popularity with young
voters was especially high.
Obama enjoyed a
groundswell of support
among the Facebook
generation.
Obama captures
70 percent of young
On Election Day, he captured
nearly 70 percent of the vote among
Americans under 25. In a word,
Obama enjoyed a groundswell
of support among the Facebook
generation. The vote has even been
dubbed the “Facebook election.”
Obama, who was constantly
thumbing his BlackBerry during
the campaign, had a shrewd
understanding of the electoral
power of direct Web-based political
mobilization. His campaign
leveraged not only Facebook and
CHOOSING
YouTube, but also MySpace, Twitter, 35,000 volunteer groups that raised
Flickr, Digg, BlackPlanet, LinkedIn, $30 million on the site. On YouTube,
and other Web 2.0 platforms. the Obama channel attracted more
At 47, Obama was older than 97 million video views by
than the average Facebook some 18 million channel
member, but he proved to visits.
be a natural Web politician.
On his personal Facebook
profile, he named his
favorite musicians as Miles
Davis, Stevie Wonder and
Bob Dylan, and listed his
pastimes as basketball,
writing and “loafing
w/kids” (note the hip
shorthand).
The 72-year-old
John McCain, by
contrast, never
managed to connect
with voters online.
McCain:
Missing in
action on the
Internet
McCain’s
campaign
struggled
to give its
candidate
a Web presence, but
compared to Obama’s online
blitzkrieg, the former war hero was Compare
missing in action on the Internet. that to McCain’s to
The cold numbers tell the story. YouTube presence: only 330 videos
Obama counted some three million were uploaded to the JohnMcCain.
“friends” on Facebook and two com channel, which attracted just
million more on 15 other social over 28,000 subscribers.
networking sites. He also boasted The McCain channel attracted
13 million names on an email list barely more than million visits
and three million receiving SMS and some 25 million video views.
messages coming directly from Obama beat McCain four to one on
Obama’s famous Blackberry. YouTube. Obama attracted double
The MyBarackObama.com Web the Web site traffic and had five
site was clocking more than eight times more Facebook friends. On
million monthly visits, including
NEXT PAGE
SMART PEOPLE 17
CHOOSING
CONTINUED
the microblogging platform Twitter,
Obama could count on more than
112,000 supporters “tweeting” to
get him elected. McCain, for his
part, had only 4,600 followers on
Twitter. In the world of politics
where victories and defeats can
be measured with great precision,
these stats graphically illustrate
how Obama crushed McCain on
the Web.
The YouTube coup de grace
was the blockbuster “Yes We Can”
videoclip. The viral circulation of
that video, watched by millions of
Americans only days after it was
first posted, gave Obama solid
electoral credibility in Middle
America. Suddenly he was like
a pop star on MTV. The video
wasn’t even made by the Obama
campaign team: it was produced
spontaneously by the hip hop star
Will.i.am, from the group Black
Eyed Peas.
That video offered a classic
example of bottom-up civic
engagement and its viral network
effects. Obama’s masterful
leveraging of Web 2.0 platforms
marked a major e-ruption in
electoral politics – in America and
elsewhere. Political campaigning is
now shifting from old-style political
machines, which are vertical top-
down organizations, toward the
horizontal dynamics of online
social networks.
Web 2.0 platforms like Facebook
and Twitter, by their basic social
architecture, are a perfect medium
for grassroots political movements.
There are no barriers to entry on
sites like Facebook and YouTube.
Everybody can participate, building
social capital online.
Resurgence of social capital
For those who a decade ago
were lamenting the decline of
‘social capital’ in America, Web
18 SMART PEOPLE
2.0 platforms have emerged as
powerful tools of social interaction,
civic engagement, and political
mobilization. Unlike traditional
means of civic action dependant on
complex organizations like political
parties, there are no barriers
to entry in the Web 2.0 sphere,
which as the Obama campaign
demonstrated is low cost and high
impact.
Web 2.0 networks like Facebook
not only allow citizens to organize
themselves by bypassing traditional
organizational structures, they
also allow political and business
leaders to engage and communicate
directly with their constituencies
without going through traditional
intermediaries like the media.
Obama’s masterful leveraging of Web 2.0 platforms
marked a major e-ruption in electoral politics –
in America and elsewhere.
President Obama, for example,
used his Change.gov site to speak
directly to Americans and today a
White House blog serves the same
purpose.
He is also the first president
who, during a White House press
conference, has called regarding
a question from a Web-only
journalist. These are signs of
powerful changes. Web 2.0 social
networks diffuse power away from
institutions and toward people,
providing effective platforms for a
genuine expression of bottom-up
expression of citizen sovereignty.
Web-based citizen
empowerment can potentially
strengthen liberal democracies and,
more importantly, bring democracy
to countries currently living under
tyranny and despotism in its many
forms.
Call it Politics 2.0.
Reactionary hostility in
authoritarian regimes
One measure of the Web’s role in
providing a political voice to citizens
is, paradoxically, the reactionary
hostility it provokes in authoritarian
regimes that oppose democracy. No
wonder dictatorships resent, and
frequently suppress, free expression
on Web 2.0 networks like MySpace,
Facebook and YouTube. Syria’s
autocratic state has jailed bloggers
and blocks Web sites deemed as a
security threat. On Syria’s black list
are both Facebook and YouTube.
Even in Egypt, an Arab country that
enjoys open diplomatic relations with
the West, the government takes a
hard line towards online criticism of
the state.
The Chinese regime has also
imprisoned cyber-dissidents
and, in March 2008, shut down
25 Web sites including YouTube.
Indonesia meanwhile has banned
both YouTube and MySpace. Other
states that have banned Web sites or
imprisoned cyber-dissidents include
Iran, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Belarus,
Burma, North Korea, Tunisia,
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and
Vietnam.
An OpenNet Initiative survey
published in 2007 reported that
25 of 41 countries surveyed were
engaging in some form of Internet
censorship. Clearly, there is
something about free and open
sites like MySpace, Facebook and
YouTube that non-democratic
regimes find threatening.
Insurgence of ‘anti-democracy’
Some contend that Web 2.0
platforms are anti-democratic. They
warn that, even in Western countries

including the United States, there
is an ever-present danger that
states will succumb to Big Brother
temptations and pry into social
networking sites to spy on their
citizens.
There are even conspiracy
theories that claim Facebook was
started by the CIA through alleged
links between the site’s original
venture capital backers and the
American spy agency. While
the CIA admits openly it uses
Facebook for recruitment purposes,
there doesn’t appear to be any
operational linkage between the
two organizations.
The CIA’s seemingly innocuous
use of Facebook nonetheless
has raised concerns among civil
libertarians. Facebook’s privacy
policy, for example, states it does
not share personal information
with third-party companies ­– but
adds that, in order to comply
with the law, it may give personal
information to ‘government
agencies.’
If Web 2.0 platforms promote
social capital and civic engagement,
the same self-organizational
opportunities are available to
criminals and terrorists. The
findings of a “Dark Web” research
project at the University of Arizona,
tracked Jihadist extremist groups
using Web 2.0 media, provide a
particularly disturbing example of
how Web 2.0 platforms can become
vehicles for terrorism. The study,
published in 2008, came across
an alarming number of Jihadist
blogs, including one that post news
updates about so-called “occupied
Islamic countries.”
Jihadist bloggers were also
active on YouTube, uploading
videos featuring explosives, attacks,
bombings and hostage-taking. On
Second Life, meanwhile, a ‘Terrorist
of SL’ attracted 228 members and
another group called ‘Liberation
Front’ counted 65 followers. Some
claim that terrorists are using Web
platforms like Google Earth to
locate potential targets, especially
in countries like Israel. This may
explain why Google has, in fact,
pixilated sensitive zones in Israel and
elsewhere in the world that could
come under a terrorist attack.
NATO prepared for cyber warfare
While the Kremlin denied any
involvement in the cyberattacks
after they first occurred in 2007,
the incident prompted the NATO
military alliance to step up its
readiness for cyber warfare. In early
2009, a pro-Kremlin youth group
admitted it was responsible for
cyberattacks against Estonia.
President Obama, a leader who
understands the power of Web 2.0
platforms, is taking these threats
seriously. During the presidential
election campaign, he promised to
elevate cybersecurity as a national
priority and appoint a cyber-czar
reporting directly to him in the
White House as part of an ambitious,
$30 billion Comprehensive National
Cyber Initiative.
After taking office, President
Obama earmarked $335 million
CHOOSING
for securing U.S. Internet
infrastructure. He also gave broad
powers over cybersecurity to the
National Security Agency (NSA)
– one of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies
– under the direction of General
Keith Alexander.
While the NSA’s work is
top secret, it’s believed that its
cybersecurity efforts include
blocking thousands of foreign
electronic attacks on U.S. systems
that occur every day. Russia and
China, in particular, are believed
to have developed advanced
cyberwarfare capacity.
Barack Obama won the U.S.
presidency thanks to Politics 2.0,
and it now appears like his
American foreign policy will be
driven by Geopolitics 2.0.
Matthew Fraser is Senior Research
Fellow and Soumitra Dutta is Roland
Berger Chaired Professor of Business
and Technology at INSEAD. Their book,
Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom:
How Online Social Networking Will
Change Your Life, Work and World, is
published by Wiley. The book’s Web site
can be found at www.throwingsheep.com
SMART PEOPLE 19
CHOOSING
Death of a salesman
Or: The shift of knowledge power to the smart customer
Here’s an ‘intercepted’ message from our prospects have made us work
Sean McPheat – known as the ‘UK’s #1 harder and harder for our sales
authority on modern day selling’ – to the (thanks!).
typical sales professional beleaguered There’s a new kid in town
by demands of today’s informed buyer. too. Or should I say, there’s a new
McPheat tells entrepreneurs and their objection doing the rounds . . . .
people how they can start to redress
the balance of power in the customer “Due to the present economic
relationship! Clear evidence that climate…”
the knowledge factor has changed I bet you’re sick of hearing that
everything. one!
You see, cold calling is getting to
By Sean McPheat the point where a lot of companies
MTD Sales Training are asking themselves whether it’s
really worth the hassle; the buyer of
More objections, more price bashing, today wants more and more and, at
the economy excuse, stalling tactics, the same time, wants to pay less and
gatekeepers from hell and elusive less!
decision makers! Just what is Does this sound familiar? Have
happening in the world of selling? you also found that your prospects
The world of selling is changing seem to be more aware of what’s
rapidly and is a very different going on too?
animal to years gone by. I mean they seem to have a
The economy is in the worst state lot more knowledge about your
it has been since the eighties and products and services than they
during used to. They also seem to know
the past a lot about your industry too and
couple of they also know a lot about your
years we’ve competitor’s products and services.
all found And have you noticed what
has happened
to sales cycles
lately?
Buyers
either know
what they
want almost
immediately
and purchase
from you or not
or they seem
to play you
off against the
competition,
playing silly
buggers with
the pricing
or just simply
20 SMART PEOPLE
refuse to return your emails and
calls.
Yes, something’s definitely
going on!
Even gatekeepers are tougher
to get through – it’s as though some
of them have been through combat
training to fend off your calls.
It’s not that the current
techniques no longer work,
it’s just that the audience
they were designed for no
longer exists!
And if that’s not enough, after
the incredible time and effort
invested into obtaining the sale or
the account, keeping the customer
and maintaining the relationship
– while once a reliable and even
assumed prize – has now become
a roll of the dice. Customers are
ready to run to the competition
at the drop of a hat, leaving you
wondering if customer loyalty
means anything any more.
You see, you’ve read the
books that tell you “Thirty-four
ways to close the deal”; you’ve
read the articles that tell you the
exact words and phrases to use to
“overcome those objections”; and
you’ve even listened to your sales
manager’s pass-me-down “tips of
the trade,” yet still you find it hard
to make your quota!
So why is this?
Well, the approach you’re
currently using to try to fix the
problem is similar to that of
looking for a band aid to cure
cancer.
• You’ve most likely been looking
for an exact sentence or two to
respond to the economy excuse;

• You’ve probably been trying
different rapport building
techniques;
• You’ve probably been tinkering
with your sales presentations too,
haven’t you?
Your job has been getting
a littler harder every year and
the typical response from your
manager has been to concentrate on
three issues:
• Work harder;
• Develop more effective tactics,
tricks and closing techniques;
• Lower prices to be more
competitive.
However, you may have also
noticed improvement in these areas
has still not solved the problem. You
have probably found that by putting
in more hours, making more calls
and studying more books for that
latest trick or objection-handling
response still has not improved
your sales to the desired level.
So what is the problem?
Actually, it is quite simple: All
of the problems you are currently
facing are actually symptoms of
a bigger problem – you are trying
to communicate with a prospect/
buyer who no longer exists!
• They’ve read the same books as
you;
• They’ve been on the same
courses as you;
• They can log on to the Internet
and compare prices with your
competitor’s products within
minutes;
• They can ask for
recommendations using all types
of social media like Facebook
and LinkedIn.
Yes, today, your prospects and
clients are more knowledgable and
sales savvy than ever before so the
question you need to ask yourself
is this: Are you and your staff
properly trained to meet with the
demands of the modern day buyer?
The sales profession
is missing the boat
We work tirelessly to upgrade
our techniques and the tools of
our trade; however, most fail to
understand the patient has changed!
The modern buyer is an entirely
different animal from those in the
past.
Therefore, the overwhelming
majority of sales techniques and
strategies and all of the old-tried
and true gems and rock solid closes
are simply no longer valid.
It’s not that they do not work;
it’s just that the audience they were
designed for no longer exists. Much
of the knowledge and experience
of the old sales pros has become
irrelevant.
I’m not being disrespectful of
those long-time professionals who
have been in the business for years
and are still seeing great success.
The point is that much of what
we learned in the past simply has
no relevance when dealing with
the educated, modern consumer of
today.
With the explosion and
availability of information due to
the Internet, modern day buyers
can lay their hands on nearly every
piece of information, education and
opinion online about your products
and services.
Psst . . . they can then do exactly
the same with your competitor’s
products and services too!
In short, whether we like it or
not, it’s a buyer’s market.
Truth is this isn’t an intercepted
message. Sean McPheat actually wrote
this article specifically for Smart
People magazine. He is the founder
and managing director of MTD Sales
Training which has served over 700
companies and in excess of 10,000 sales
professionals. Sean is a thought leader
within the sales industry and is a much
sought after conference and motivational
speaker. www.mtdsalestraining.com
CHOOSING
Seven tips to redress
the balance of power
Here are some top tips to start
tipping the scales in your favor:
1. It’s more effective to be different
than to be better – most
businesses have the
same USPs (Unique
Selling Point) and
benefits, so what
makes you
different?
2. Know your
competitor
products/
services inside out
– your prospects will
and they will use this
against you.
3. Open your cold
calls in a
different way
to the norm
– everyone
sounds the
same.
4. Have different
sales processes for
different buyers – if someone
already knows what he wants
as opposed to someone who
does not know, you should have
a different approach for each.
5. Become a trusted advisor – get
away from being viewed as a
salesman and come across as a
trusted and respected advisor.
6. Raise your standards – you need
to raise your game so you know
everything there is to know about
your products and services and
your industry as a whole.
7. Become a statistics junkie – you
really need to understand your
numbers and performance at
every stage of the sales cycle.
You need to become engrossed
in understanding the science
of your selling and use this to
continually improve.

SMART PEOPLE 21
LEARNING

LEARNING Grown up digital

Into collaboration,
innovation, fun
By Don Tapscott
Author, Grown Up Digital
The world of work, and its traditional
resistance to sharing knowledge, is about
to be challenged by a new generation of
employees – young people who have grown
up digital.
As the first generation in history to be
immersed in digital technology, they have
a natural feel for digital tools that keep
them connected with friends, sometimes
hundreds of them, all day long. For the
Net Generation, as I call them, sharing
knowledge and collaborating with each
other is as natural as breathing. Their way of competence, more mobile and less
sharing, so powerfully demonstrated in the dependent on geography. This means
way they propelled President Barack Obama knowledge must be shared effectively
to the White House, is now about to enter the so that teams around the world can
workplace. collaborate on tricky problems.
Work – and how we work together Yet for many organizations, sharing
­– may never be the same. Organizations knowledge has been a challenge.
should take a long look at how these Net
Geners operate. Their new modus Now executives rate
operandi could offer companies a huge
competitive advantage in this digital age.
knowledge management as one
Right now, the nature of work is changing. of the worst management tools
Work has become more cognitively complex, in business.
more team-based and collaborative, more
dependent on social skills, more time- Corporate knowledge sharing
pressured, more reliant on technological — an expensive failure
Companies in North America have
spent billions of dollars on knowledge
Don Tapscott is the world’s single management systems designed to
most knowledgeable source on the capture and share knowledge embedded
impact of the digital revolution on inside organizations with a view to
making them more productive and
the Net Generation and, in turn, on profitable.
the changes it will bring to the way Knowledge management, according
we work. The future is for smart to a survey by Bain & Company, the
Boston-based management consultancy,
people who have learned the power has been one of the top 10 management
of sharing and collaborating online tools used by executives worldwide.
and in life. Yet most of the time, it’s been an
expensive failure. Although knowledge

22 SMART PEOPLE

management has been a
popular tool, executives have
usually been disappointed
with the results. In fact, in
Bain’s most recent survey,
worldwide executives rated
knowledge management as
one of the worst management
tools in business.
Knowledge management
was bound to fail because
it’s based on a faulty
understanding of how
knowledge should be handled.
The traditional way is to
contain knowledge, as if it
were a finite resource captured
in containers and then made
available through depositories.
This mental model drove
many knowledge management
efforts – such as directories,
elaborate company intranets/
portals, and reward systems
for information.
Right away it was plagued
by problems. As it turned out,
lots of people didn’t feel like knowledge in this new way are
sharing the knowledge they
knew, and the information that Net Generation that has grown
was gathered was fragmentary
and dated.
The fundamental problem,
though, was this: Treating
knowledge like a rare bottle of Generation because they’ve
wine, as a precious and finite been profoundly influenced
resource, makes no sense in
the 21st century digital world.
These days information is not
limited; it’s infinite and it’s
amazingly quick to spread on
the Internet.
Net Gen prefers sharing
knowledge outside the
control of hierarchies
New knowledge
management has to operate
under a new premise, that
knowledge is endless and
largely outside of the control
of the authorities in business.
Managing knowledge does not interactive. He’s a player,
mean containing or restricting
it, or handing it down, from
top to bottom. Instead,
organizations should think
about sharing knowledge as
the new mental infrastructure
for the 21st century way to
work. If knowledge is power,
as Francis Bacon and so many
others have said, this may well
mean new knowledge systems
will change organizations and
the way we work. Hierarchies
that are propped up by access
to insider knowledge will be
eroded. Sharing knowledge
will encourage a new form of
collaboration.
The Net Generation
has been profoundly
influenced by their
immersion in digital
technology.
The people primed to share
the youngest employees, the
up digital. This generation,
children of the Baby Boomers,
are turning 12 to 32 this
year. I call them the Net
by their immersion in digital
technology.
Take a look at a teenager
on any weeknight. While he’s
doing his homework, he may
be listening to music, taking
calls on his mobile phone,
checking in with friends on
Facebook, writing blogs or
Twitters and perhaps playing
his favorite computer game.
If the TV’s on, it’s
background noise, like Muzak.
He doesn’t just watch, as
his parents did. The media
he consumes is, at its core,
LEARNING
a writer, a talker, an active
participant – not just a mute
member of the audience.
He’s rarely alone. Even the
computer games he plays are
collaborative affairs. You win,
or lose, together.
This immersion in
interactive technology has
had a profound effect on
everything the Net Generation
does. When they do homework,
they consult each other. When
they think of buying a new
music player, they check with
friends about the brand and the
price before going to the store,
or ordering it online.
They’re accustomed to
having hundreds of friends on
Facebook – friends they keep
up with
on a
regular
basis.
Boomers
like me are astonished at the
way Net Geners share private
pictures and stories with
hundreds of friends, but to the
Net Generation, this kind of
sharing is the new normal.
They share; they
collaborate. This affects the
way they like to work. Boomers
grew up with hierarchies – at
home, at school, at work. The
goal in a hierarchy is to move
up and have more people
reporting to you. But as Tamara
Erickson, a widely respected
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SMART PEOPLE 23
LEARNING
CONTINUED
expert on organizations and
the changing workforce, has
observed, this generation
is not turned on by status
or hierarchy. They want to
do challenging work, but
they don’t necessarily want
organizational responsibility.
Their dream job, she
says, is something like this:
A job with a goal no one
knows how to solve and lots
of great people to work with.
How different that is from
the workplace I entered after
college, where the goal was to
have a corner office (which I
occupied at one point, which, I
have to admit, felt good.)
That was power over the
people. But collaboration,
as Net Geners know it, is
achieving something with
other people, seeking power
through other people, not
by ordering a gaggle of
followers to do your bidding.
Collaboration is how Net
Geners get things done. It’s in
their gene pool.
24 SMART PEOPLE
The power of collaboration
is easy to underestimate
Look at how the Net
Geners helped President
Obama win his epic
presidential race last year. At
the outset, Sen. Hillary Clinton
was the powerhouse. She
had the money, the powerful
backers, the numbers.
But even Clinton, a
seasoned political professional,
did not grasp the full power
of Net Generation style
collaboration. Obama did – and
recruited the co-founder of
Facebook, 23-year-old Chris
Hughes, to run his online
campaign.
The Obama campaign
gave the power to its people
– to supporters – to organize
events, raise money and tell
their friends. This was a major
change from the traditional
political campaign that was
directed from the top, and
it worked. This remarkable
grassroots campaign changed
the game of politics and made
history.
Knowledge
collaboration will
accelerate the creation
of new ideas and
increase competitive
advantage.
Now, as the first wave
of Net Geners enter the
world of business, they bring
with them a new approach
to sharing knowledge and
collaborating. Powerful new
collaboration tools such as
wikis, blogs, social networks,
search, tags, RSS feeds, jams,
telepresence and content
management enable a new
form of real-time knowledge
sharing, or what we call
knowledge collaboration.
This approach is a key to
unleashing and harnessing
the knowledge contained not
only within an enterprise, but
outside its boundaries. This
will accelerate the creation
of new ideas and increase
competitive advantage.
Look at CoreMedia, a
150-person German content-
management software firm.
It has not only embraced
the latest digital tools for
collaboration, but it has
changed the way it works
to be truly collaborative
– so much so that CEO Sören
Stamer thinks his company
operates like a giant brain.
CoreMedia employees are
remarkably networked when it
comes to sharing infor­mation,
using tools from wikis to
Twitter-style microblogging
as part of their daily work.
These tools, together with a
unique organizational culture,
have helped CoreMedia
dispense with the traditional
organizational hierarchy, my
colleague Alan Majer reported
in a paper for nGenera, the
think tank I founded.
“In its place is a much
more open and bottom-
up set of operations and
processes,“ Majer reported.
“CoreMedia has attempted
a bold experiment: instead
of fitting a collection of self-
interested individuals into a
rigid corporate structure, the
company fosters a flexible
and highly networked
structure where individuals
collectively steer the firm. It’s
a transformational approach
that promises to improve
everything from the pace of
innovation to the quality of
decisions.”
 LEARNING
The company uses a by experts in the Harvard waiting for the HR department
variety of collaborative tools. Business Review as backwards to issue an invite to an off-
Every quarter the company and counterproductive. But it campus weekend session, they
holds workshops in which makes even less sense to the gather together online to set up
participants can choose a topic. Net Gener. ‘camps’ to address an important
Then there’s microblogging It’s a one-way professional issue.
tool called Trillr which takes communication – boss to Then they bill themselves
the emotional pulse of the employee – that usually as Case Camps – a “free
enterprise. ignores the employee’s communications and social
CoreMedia has also wishes and desires. It media unconference,” that has
created its own blogging happens once a year – long the extra benefit of “fantastic
platform called CoCo which after the performance took networking and interactive
includes the ability to evaluate place. It rewards or punishes art in the bar.” They set a date,
postings with thumbs up or individual performance – not choose a topic and pick a real-
thumbs down, or to share the collaboration that Net life location. Anyone can give
related topics that have Geners treasure. It’s more about a 15-minute talk at the camp
received similar votes. It helps compensation and promotions – and several heavy hitters have
CoreMedia’s teams stay in than improving performance. volunteered. Camp takes place,
sync. Naturally, the company sponsors pay for the costs, but
has a wiki – a good vehicle Annual performance participants go for free.
for employees to turn an These are the early
idea they’ve discussed into a
review too little, too late. signs of a new way to work
product. New approach springs for a generation that finds
This has produced directly from the Net knowledge sharing
positive results, according to and collaboration to be
Majer: “Today, the company Generation’s need for
NEXT PAGE
is more agile, the dialogue more timely feedback.
is richer, and decisions are
Now a new Toronto-based
more effective.” What’s more,
company called Rypple has
individual employees feel
proposed a new form of
that they can fix a problem or
propose a solution without feedback. It’s a Web-
waiting for instructions from based service that springs
a supervisor. “You just have to directly from the Net
open your eyes and see what’s Generation need
on the blog and the Trillr,” saidfor continuous feedback. 
Stamer, the CEO. Instead of waiting an
entire year to
Net Gen wants continuous find out what
feedback, not the traditional managers
annual review think of them,
CoreMedia is clearly on employees can send out a
the cutting edge, but young quick (50 words or less)
people are introducing question to people
tools that could affect the they trust – a manager,
way knowledge is spread a co-worker sitting in
in traditional businesses. the meeting, even a
Take the standard annual client or a supplier.
performance review, in which They can chart their
the boss is supposed to tell the progress on issues
underling how he or she rates and improve. Or look
against corporate objectives. at the way Net Geners
It’s been criticized for years handle job training. Instead of

SMART PEOPLE 25
LEARNING

CONTINUED To be sure, some I believe that companies

perfectly natural. Yet older information must be kept that work in the Net Gen
within company boundaries. way will be the winners of
employees don’t get it.
the future. The new Web
Many still criticize the Net But that shouldn’t give
companies a reason to ban – which allows you to not
Generation as entitled, lazy,
blogging. only hunt for information,
coddled by the parents, and
Instead, employers but contribute – offers the
“woefully ill prepared,” as a
Don Tapscott should explain the rules to technology to help us harness
U.S. employers group put it.
human skill, ingenuity and
is chairman They suspect that these social new Net Gen employees,
says Danah Boyd, a fellow at intelligence more efficiently
of nGenera networking tools are a big
The Annenberg Center for and effectively than anything
[http://www. waste of time.
Communications, University we have witnessed previously.
ngenera.com/] By mobilizing the
of Southern California: “You
and the author How to mitigate clashes have a guideline on it. You collective knowledge,
of 13 books between young and old
have to make it very, very clear capability, and resources
on the impact It is perhaps inevitable,
that there is zero tolerance for embodied within broad
then, that the new generation
of the Internet [sharing company information] networks of participants,
and the old should clash over
on society. with the penalty of being fired
how work works.
His latest The Net Gener arrives at for cause.” Future winners will
book, Grown work, eager to use his social There’s no question that unlock structures,
Up Digital, is sharing knowledge and
now available
networking tools to collaborate
learning to collaborate is a reach outside
and create and contribute to
through the company. challenge, but it only begins boundaries and tap
with the adept use of tools like
your favorite For starters, he’s shocked
social networking. Companies
into vast pools of
to find the company’s
bookseller.
technological tools are more have to change in a far deeper intellectual capital.
primitive than the ones he way to adapt to the Net smart firms can accomplish
used in high school. The Gen’s way of working in a great things.
company he works for still collaborative way. People throughout a
thinks the Net is about Web Companies will have firm, locked into traditional
sites, presenting information, to completely rethink the organizational structures, can
way they handle them, from be freed to share knowledge
Sure, some info must be kept within the first contact until after and ingenuity.
they leave the company. Further, companies can
company boundaries. But that Companies need to discard reach outside their boundaries
doesn’t justify a ban on blogging. the old model of top-down to tap into vast pools of
employee development, labor available in the global
rather than a Web 2.0 which calls on managers to economy.
collaboration platform. recruit, train and supervise Whether designing
The Net Gener is surprised, employees, and replace it with an airplane, assembling a
perhaps naively, to learn that a more appropriate employer- motorcycle, or analyzing the
corporations have antiquated employee relationship for this human genome, the ability
ways of working. Then the generation. to integrate the talents of
company bans Facebook at dispersed individuals and
the office because it suspects New model is about organizations is becoming
Net Geners are wasting time collaboration, not the defining competency for
chatting with friends and old-fashioned supervision managers and firms.
throwing digital snowballs The new model is about This is a tremendously
when they should be working collaboration, not old- powerful way to do business,
– thus depriving Net Geners fashioned supervision – from says Best Buy CEO Brad
of their link to friends, to fun, the moment an employee is Anderson. It’s “unleashing the
to co-workers. Pretty soon, the hired until long after he or she power of human capital.”
talent heads for the exit. leaves.

26 SMART PEOPLE
 LEARNING

Great American Think-Off

Is it ever wrong to do the right thing?
On June 13 – before a live audience – New York Mills, Minnesota, US, population 1,219, will celebrate
its 17th year hosting a debate which is the culmination of America’s “premier amateur philosophy
contest,” the Great American Think-Off. The topic this year: “Is it ever wrong to do the right thing?”
Selected by a panel of judges, four finalists will be announced May 1 based on 750-word essays.
They will receive $500 plus travel, food and lodging expenses. The winner will be decided by the
audience attending the debate and he or she will be named “America’s Greatest Thinker for 2009.”
It’s all happening in a tiny little town in the American Midwest, located on a railroad track,
bypassed by Interstate 10. Why not?

Cultural, creative opportunities for rural Americans

The Think-Off is the brainchild of the New York Mills Arts Retreat & Regional Cultural
Center, located in a former storefront on Main Street and dedicated to expanding the cultural and
creative opportunities of rural Americans by offering innovative, quality arts programming and
demonstrating how the arts can be used as an economic development tool in rural communities
across the nation.
New York Mills is a small town that thinks big.
The 2008 debate was held on Saturday, June 14 and America’s Greatest Thinker for 2008 was
Craig Allen of West Linn, Oregon. The topic: “Does immigration strengthen or threaten the United
States?”

Immigration? Champ says system the real threat

The thinking champ argued that even though he did not oppose immigration, the system
of immigration and immigration policy in the United States is broken, encouraging an influx of
illegal immigrants. The broken system, he argued, poses a threat to the United States.
One of Allen’s arguments was that many Americans remain fearful of immigration – hence
the efforts to build a fence along the southern border with Mexico. Mr. Allen made an effective
argument that we have reached the point in America where those who disagree about
immigration can no longer engage in civil conversation to find a means of fixing the system.
In the debate’s best moments the four Think-Off finalists touched on what it means to be
an American, and the conversation confirmed that American identity is both complex and
evolving.
The silver medal winner, Deana Cavaliere from Richfield, Minnesota, proposed that the
flow of immigrants representing diverse cultures has resulted in an unpredictable mix of
ideas that makes America the most innovative and wealthy country in the world. Cavaliere
suggested that this status has been placed in jeopardy today as Americans become more
fearful about the economic and cultural effects of many new arrivals to our shores.
The two bronze finishers were Tom Bailey of Nashville, Tennessee, for strengthens, and
Nick Thayer of St. Cloud, Minnesota, for threatens.

Stay tuned: More to come, June, July editions.

Smart People will follow the 2009 Great American Think-Off, announcing the finalists
in the June issue and the winner in July. We’ll print his or her winning essay.

SMART PEOPLE 27
LEARNING
The creative economy
Where everyone gets to play in new places
By Dave Lewis
Innovation expert
In Canada, a group of Nike
employees meets once a
week in the same place at
the same time for a creative
brainstorming session. The
meetings always last the same
amount of time.
But there’s an element that
keeps the sessions from going
Reprinted by stale. The meetings are on a
permission. Toronto subway car.
First published in The attendees from Nike
Knowledge@
W. P. Carey
board at the same stop and
[http://knowledge. get off at the same stop. They
wpcarey.asu.edu], also have some guests – other
Dec. 3, 2008. passengers on the car.
Dave Lewis
28 SMART PEOPLE
“Gray Formica meeting
spaces lead to Gray Formica
thinking,” Dave Lewis told
an audience at the Center
for Services Leadership at
Arizona State University’s
19th Annual Compete
Through Service symposium.
The name of Lewis’
company is a copy editor’s
bad dream, but the mission
of ?What if! The Innovation
Company is to shake folks
out of stale thinking, so it
works. Lewis knows there
isn’t necessarily a fast train
that takes companies to a
more innovative and creative
place. Creativity that leads to
innovation, Lewis said, tends
to be more a habit than a
destination.
What is it?
Creativity is a term that
gets thrown around a lot
but is sometimes difficult to
define.
?What if! has a working
definition of creativity.
According to Lewis, it is
“the habit of continually
doing things in new ways to
make a positive difference
to our working lives.”
?What If! was
launched in the United
Kingdom in the early
1990s by two Unilever
employees. Charged with
innovating, they were
frustrated with
the company’s
bureaucracy, so
they went off
on their own,
keeping Unilever as a client
and adding dozens of other
well-known companies
such as Johnson & Johnson,
Kimberly-Clarke, Marriott
and Wal-Mart.
In the early years, ?What
If! worked on specific projects,
but the principals soon found
there also was demand for
teaching clients the skills of
innovation.
?What If! has grown
to more than 300 people
with offices in four cities,
including New York. Lewis,
one of the first hires in North
America, joined the company
after finishing his MBA at
Columbia.
Everyone can play
At the companies he
visits, Lewis too often hears
that creativity and innovation
are jobs for the marketing
department, or someone with
innovation or insight in their
title.
“I don’t really think
that’s true,” he said. “I
think everybody has an
opportunity to do things in
new ways. How many of us
have ever cooked without a
recipe? How many have ever
redecorated a room?”
Both endeavors engage
the type of creativity that can
spur innovation in industry,
he said. “Creativity can be
something as small as that,”
Lewis said.
Innovation is also
something that can be
practiced everyday. “When
we do something every day,
it becomes second nature,” he
says.

Turning to action
While creativity shouldn’t
be limited to a few elites at
a company, some discipline
is required in order to make
creativity useful and valuable
for a business.
“I believe in creativity
that gets you somewhere,”
Lewis said. “I don’t believe in
creativity just for having fun.”
He calls that “crazy-tivity”
and says that’s better done
outside of work.
“Creativity and
innovation are distinct
entities,” Lewis points out.
“But the two words are often
interchanged in the business
world.”
Creativity plays a role
in all aspects of innovation,
beginning with the generation
of ideas. But creativity is not
the goal. “Creativity should
lead to innovation,” he says,
“based on a combination of
insight into customers’ needs
and wants with ideas, creating
impact.”
What works and doesn’t
Lewis gives a couple
of examples of innovative
products – one executed well
and one that wasn’t.
Listerine recently
launched a popular new
product – strips that dissolve
and freshen breath. This
new product started with
a customer insight, that
everyone needs a discreet
way to fight bad breath while
out in public. Working with
Johnson & Johnson, Listerine
developed the dissolving
strip. It was new technology
being used as a spermicide in
Asia.
When Listerine
introduced its mouthwash
product, sales surpassed 12-
month projections in the first
three months. The company
actually ran out of inventory.
The technology has since been
adapted for other products,
including flu remedies,
vitamins and pain-killers.
However, the Segway
exemplifies creativity and
innovation that didn’t go so
well.
The two-wheeled, electric
personal transportation device
made a splashy debut in 2001.
“Steve Jobs himself said the
Segway would be as big a
revolution to the human race
as the personal computer,”
Lewis recalls.
Although the company
told the Wall Street Journal
last summer it expected a
50 percent jump in sales,
the Segway does not appear
to have swept the country.
(Segway, a privately held
company, does not divulge
sales figures.)
Lewis says, “While the
technology is good, Segway
lacked insight into their
customers’ lives, the kind of
perceptive observation that
made Listerine successful
with the breath strips. What
was the consumer or market
need? The challenge with the
Segway is where do you drive
it? It’s too big for the sidewalk
and it doesn’t have enough
power for the open road.”
Barriers
Lewis frequently
encounters teams that walk in
saying they can’t be creative.
“You might as well turn
around and walk right out
the door,” he says. “Attitude is
everything.”
According to Lewis,
employees are seldom given
the opportunity to acquire
LEARNING
Smart profile
Rise from teenage entrepreneur
Dave Lewis started early in business, joining the
start-up basketball footwear and apparel company,
AND 1, while still in high school. Over the next 10
years, as the business grew from four to more than
200 people worldwide, his responsibilities included
brand development, marketing communications,
new product and business development.
He also helped develop AND 1’s Mix Tape
entertainment property, overseeing various
multimedia ventures with partners such as ESPN,
Activision and Harper Collins.
Dave grew up in South New Jersey, US, and
got his MBA at Columbia Business School in New
York. His passion for education, creativity and
entrepreneurship combined with his belief that life
is too short to not go for it and have fun led him to
?What if!
Dave is now helping to develop the Learning
Team in the Americas and thus spends his days
delivering speeches, running courses and working
with companies on ways people can be more
innovative – and of course – have more fun!
More information: www.whatifinnovation.com
the skill sets to be creative.
The knowledge of how to
facilitate an ideation session
is an example of a skill you
can learn. “But unless you
invest the time and energy in
acquiring these skills, even the
right attitude goes for naught.”
Companies can build
structures, such as rewards
and measurements, to ensure
change happens. One of the
best ways to come up with
ideas is a “greenhousing”
session where ideas are
nurtured before they are
judged, because ideas never
occur in a fully formed
fashion.
For example, the iPod was
not conceived as a hand-held
device that would play MP3
NEXT PAGE
SMART PEOPLE 29
LEARNING
In Britain
6,000 online centers connect digitally disadvantaged
It should be no surprise
that the country most
experienced in the art of
knowledge sharing, with
its history of town criers
and the ‘sport’ of debate,
would be the most vigorous
adapters and promoters of
new media communications
breakthroughs.
The United Kingdom
even has a Digital Inclusion
Minister, Wayne David.
The digital revolution
has seen interactive
tools like Facebook,
YouTube, MySpace and
Twitter transform self-
expression and
communication,
helping
individuals and
communities
The creative economy
CONTINUED
files, sport a touch-screen and
connect to an iTunes store
where consumers buy music
downloads.
“Someone had the seed of
an idea,” Lewis said. “It was
collaborated on, built upon,
they added some constraints,
worked around them, and
then created the product.”
Eventually ideas are
judged, but often the fateful
moment comes too soon.
30 SMART PEOPLE
across Britain share
information, explore issues accessible.”
and stimulate change. Yet the
government frets that less
than half of the Brits are of the digital divide
taking part, and it’s probably
disadvantaged people and
places missing out on their
own slice of cyberspace and
the chance and the platform to
make their voices heard.
Patrick Carter, a British
labor peer, says the “field
of digital dreams” can’t be
achieved with a “build it and
they will come” mentality;
people must receive the same
investment as “pipes and
sites.”
Helen Milner, managing
director of UK Online Centres,
says, “Great infrastructures
and top-notch content are
meaningless if 17 million
people still can’t, won’t or
don’t take advantage of them.
The social divide emerging
between the haves and have-
nots of technology cannot
be fixed merely by building
Some are killed; some are
mortally wounded.
The words “yes but” are
often the sword that delivers
the mortal wound, because
“yes but” can discourage all
but the most persistent. A
better approach is “yes and,”
Lewis preaches. This way
ideas are refined by addition,
rather than worn down by
criticism.
Bottom line
• Creativity in the business
world is a habit that can be
practiced and honed.
access or beautifying what’s
On the other side
Those on the other
side of the digital divide
need motivation, skills and
confidence more than they
need megabytes, she said.
Those at the forefront of
the phenomena are set to light
a way for those flailing in the
wake of the new media wave,
thanks to a new ‘Beacon’
scheme from UK Online
Centres.
The new media the
leaders are speaking of
are community and social
media which encompasses
community Web sites, blogs,
forums, videos, digital
galleries and community
radio.
These media bring local
people together to generate
their own ideas and content,
and improve their lives and
communities in the process.
• The practice of creativity
in business should not
be limited to so-called
creative types. Every
individual in the company
has the ability to be
creative and should be
encouraged.
• Creativity in business
must add to the bottom
line. That requires focus
and discipline as well as
skills.
• Businesses need to give
employees the skills and
structure to bring change
to the marketplace.

The need to boost
engagement in new
technologies is gathering
considerable momentum
within government, and is
seen as a way to unite isolated
communities and involve local
people in the control of local
issues.
Hazel Blears’
Empowerment White
Paper last July announced
the creation of Digital
Mentors to support digital
content creation in deprived
communities.
The UK Online Centre’s
Community Media Beacons
kick-started that work across
the 6,000-strong UK Online
Centres Network. The idea
of the Community Media
Beacon is to get the centers
already leading the way
in this area to share their
tips and experiences with
the rest of the UK Online
Centres Network in order
to inspire more projects,
and eventually get different
online communities working
together.
Centers were invited to
apply to become beacons, and
10 winners were picked from
across the country for their
innovation and success in
establishing and supporting
community media initiatives.
In January they were officially
awarded Community Media
Beacon status at a special
ceremony.
In Durham, England,
where tourist information
boasts a city (and county)
where you can “stop your
workday world and get
off,” a project designed
to raise the educational
aspirations and achievements
of Durham’s young people
through information and
communication technology
(ICT) has been hailed a
success in promoting greater
social inclusion by Inclusion
Minister David.
The Inclusion Minister
saw first hand the
“Aspirations Begin at Home
Project” which aims to raise
education standards and help
young people achieve their
dreams for the future. During
the visit, he also discussed
other current and planned
projects designed to promote
digital inclusion.
The “Aspirations Begin
at Home Project” has already
helped install computers and
broadband connectivity in
around 300 homes, enabling
over 900 people to gain access
to a PC and encouraging more
families to engage in their
children’s learning. 
As well as focusing on
young people, the project
has evolved to help adults
develop IT skills through the
introduction of flexible and
adaptable broadband Internet
and comprehensive training
schemes.
In recognition of its work
in this field, the District
Council has won three Beacon
Council Awards and in 2003 it
was awarded Beacon Council
Status for its work on social
inclusion through ICT.
Online Centre Network
in place since 2000
The UK Online
Centre Network was set
up in 2000 with money
from the Department for
Education and Skills Capital
Modernization Fund and the
New Opportunities Fund.
The Centre Network is now
managed by a Ufi (University
for Industry) team which is
LEARNING
working to develop a valuable
and sustainable network.
Originally set up to
provide public access to
computers, the role of the
Centres has evolved and they
now play a strong role in
exploiting information and
communication technology to
develop skills and confidence,
achieve social inclusion and
create stronger communities.
This service is now
available at http://
careersadvice.direct.gov.
uk/ and will become part of
the new Adult Careers and
Advancement Service, being
launched in 2010.
Compiled from information
provided by Abi Stevens, UK
Online Centres.
Family challenge game
UK Online Centers uses online games to help
people get started on the Internet. One is the
Family Challenge Game which begins with a
graphic showing “Your House” and the neighbor’s
house, the Walkers, across the street.
The object of the game is to outsmart the
Walkers (It’s like keeping up with the Joneses in
the US).
The player looks into the Walkers’ house
to see how they live and discover they have no
computer. So, the Walkers have to leave their
house every time they need to know something.
You click on the bathroom and discover one of the
Walkers’ problems – their child has a sore throat.
The question: is it tonsillitis?
You use your computer to find the answer.
The Walkers go to the doctor. You find out the
child just has a common sore throat and you get
some tonic from the medicine cabinet. You win!
You solved the problem while the Walkers were
. . . still walking.
SMART PEOPLE 31
WORKING
WORKING Smart People profile
Lukas Laubscher’s rise from waiter to general manager
Young, trendy general
managers are not hard to
come by in the restaurant
business, but finding passion,
determination and endurance
all rolled into one is a recipe
for success.
One such GM, Lukas
Laubscher, now has The Crab
at Chieveley as his oyster.
The Crab at Chieveley
in Newbury Berkshire, UK,
an award-winning seafood
restaurant with oceans of
charm and a boutique hotel
serving the freshest fish
and seafood from shores in
Newlyn, Brixham and Looe,
specializes in huge, succulent
Alaskan crabs!
Lukas started his career
as a humble waiter in a
franchise steakhouse in South
Africa and his single-minded
determination to jump
the career ladder had him
bounding into management
within a year.
32 SMART PEOPLE
As operational manager he
oversaw a huge brigade of staff
and forged the way in kiddie
entertainment when The Spur
Steakhouse became the first to
offer a variety of ways to keep
little ones happy while their
parents indulged in meaty
pastimes.
Ignoring the fact that
steakhouses were a highly
competitive market and even
tougher to make a mark,
Lukas continued to develop
restaurant-friendly play areas,
fun parks and family events
before hooking a career catch
by joining a start up seafood
restaurant, Catch 22.
Starting from scratch,
literally bricks and mortar,
Lukas steamed his way
through a new learning curve
and enhanced his knowledge
and enthusiasm for “Fruits De
Mer.”
Eventually the lure of
expanding his skills landed
him at
Donnington
Valley Hotel
and Spa in
Newbury
as food and
beverage
services manager,
responsible for F&B
between 2005 and
2007.  many of the key staff having
Lukas’ team
building skills
soon had him
promoted to
acting deputy
manager of
a large four-
star hotel
that achieved many awards
including the American
Airline Hotel of the Year.
Needless to say, many
competitive eyes were
watching Lukas and he was
soon fished out and caught in
The Crab at Chieveley’s net.
Steve Hughes, new owner of
The Crab, head hunted Lukas
like a fishing trawler hunts
crabs.
The challenge for Lukas
now is to continue to build
on The Crab’s vast array
of unique experiences. His
overall brief requires him to
further elevate The Crab’s
commercial success with style
and imagination.
His agenda includes
working with Head Chef
Jamie Hodson to refine an
extremely successful and
diverse menu, growing a
restaurant that is already
celebrated, constant training
and development for a highly
praised team and expanding
the boutique guest rooms.
The constant praise for the
quality of service, attention to
detail, staff’s enthusiasm and
exceptional conduct is a direct
reflection on Lukas’ strength
to build a dedicated team.
The team at The Crab is of
an outstanding pedigree with
worked with Michelin-starred
chefs. Lukas says: “The Crab
is unique and a very attractive
and exciting opportunity for
me!”
The Crab is also renowned
for its hotel rooms, some of
NEXT PAGE

Strategic corporal
Game-changing decisions transferred to junior non-coms
Listen up corporate
management. From the
organization that inspired
the management principle of
command and control comes a
change in management style that
transfers decision-making to the
front lines.
During the Association
of the United States Army’s
Institute of Land Warfare
Winter Symposium and
Exposition this year in Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., US, Gen.
Peter W. Chiarelli said the
Army should focus on
connectivity, commonality
and survivability.
With the rise of the
“strategic corporal” – the
junior noncommissioned
officer that makes game-
changing decisions in the
Smart People profile
CONTINUED
which proudly flaunt their
own private hot tub gardens.
Each room reflects individual
themes of famous rooms from
around the world and features
authentic decor in luxury and
decadence.
In a ‘crab shell,’ The Crab’s
unique features, its delectable
field – it is imperative that
even the junior-most soldier
in the field have as much
information as he needs to do
his job, Chiarelli said.
“Information is power,
and we need to make sure
we are pushing power down
to the lowest levels on the
battlefield, where it is most
needed,” he said.
“It is no longer realistic
to assume all or even the
majority of game-changing
decisions will be made at
senior levels of command; to
the contrary, those decisions
are more often made by the
individual soldier on the
ground. We are committed
to the network and to
networking every soldier.”
Over the last few years
the Army has developed new
seafood and exotic rooms
with candlelit hot tubs, make
a potent combination for
a trendy general manager.
Without a doubt, The Crab at
Chieveley is Lukas’ oyster!
For more information
on The Crab at Chieveley,
browse www.crabatchieveley.
com or email Paula Wynne at
crabatchieveley.com.
WORKING
technology to help push more
information to the soldiers that
need it most, the general said.
In 2004, for instance, the
1st Cavalry Division deployed
to Iraq with what’s called the
Command Post of the Future
(CPOF).
“In one year, commanding
a division in Baghdad, because
of CPOF, there was not a single
time that I called a brigade
commander to my command
post to issue an operations
order,” Chiarelli said.
“We did it all over the
collaboration network of
CPOF.”
MAD Mentors help
10 businesswomen succeed
Ten women from London, who had their dreams of
being mentored by some of the most successful
women in business come true, are half way
through their Make a Difference ‘MAD’ tutorship
in the FreshIdeas Events Mentor Competition.
During the past three months these female
entrepreneurs and careerwomen have had their
ideas scrutinized, digested, pummelled and re-
crunched, and finally . . . gently nurtured into
shape with the help of the best businesswomen
in the industry!
In November 2008, the winners of the
FreshIdeas Events Competition met their Mentors,
appropriately named Make A Difference (MAD)
women. In May, the most successful ‘Mentor
Mentee Couple’ will be chosen and awarded the
Grand MAD Mentor Prize.
All 10 mentees have confessed they have
been on an exciting and inspiring roller coaster
ride – and they don’t want to get off!
Stay tuned.
SMART PEOPLE 33
WORKING
Facing the New Gens
To transfer knowledge, older gens need to catch up digital
By Robert Wendover
Executive Director
The Center for
Generational Studies
Those who have inhabited the
workplace for the past many
years recognize the wealth
of information they and
their colleagues possess and
wonder how best to transfer
it to those inheriting their
responsibilities.
But what about the
worldwide
generation of
workers just
now entering
the workforce?
Ask most of
them about
the role of
knowledge
transfer as they
enter their jobs
and they’ll give
you a blank
stare.
It doesn’t
necessarily mean they’re
apathetic. It just hasn’t
occurred to most young
workers that this massive
transfer of wisdom and insight
needs to take place . . . now.
Those of the generation
that has grown up on the
Internet assume they can just
Google it. Why bother until
they need it?
While so-called explicit
knowledge – the information
in documentable sources – can
be retained and transferred
indefinitely, so-called tacit
knowledge – the knowledge
of personal experience that
34 SMART PEOPLE
supplies the context for Taking time to explain
application and interpretation the relevance of what will be
of explicit knowledge – expireslearned is a key to investing
with the departure of the New Geners in the process.
person possessing it. So how Continually reinforcing this
will this emerging generation relevance through examples
approach the process of and application will help
absorbing the knowledge from maintain the engagement of
veteran workers? their multi-channeling minds.
To break the barrier, here’s They will look for delivery
some of what the hierarchy that is convenient. E-learning
and its departing workers is so 2008. This emerging
should know about incoming generation is looking for
young workers: ways to learn and grow on
their schedule and
in their preferred
environments.
That
increasingly means
mobile devices such
as PDAs and cell
phones. The current
human resources
and training
media is alive with
discussions about
the efforts being
made to deliver
instruction and
New Geners will look for support through
value. Young workers factor applications such as Twitter.
time into everything they do. While this evolution is
Ask them to memorize routine still in its infancy, be assured
company procedures to which that young professionals
they cannot relate and they’ll will embrace these platforms
stall. and take them to levels that
But ask them to learn challenge organizations to
software that can be leveraged keep apace. Those responsible
in other environments and for knowledge management
they’ll spend the weekend and transfer will find
mastering the application. themselves faced with the
Any knowledge to same challenges.
be transferred needs to They will look for delivery
that is engaging. Young
be delivered in a way
that demonstrates value professionals are not static
learners. Even though they
and relevance to the new
generation. have endured the monotony
of many high school and

college classes, they have
also mastered the non-stop
engagement of video gaming
and other interactive devices.
While older workers are
more likely to sit patiently
through didactic presentations
and training, emerging
learners will begin to change
channels if not engaged
within the first few minutes.
Organizations will be
faced with the challenge of
placing both explicit and
tacit knowledge in formats
that stimulate young learners
using interactive applications
that employ video and
audio clips as their base for
instruction. Think YouTube
and TeacherTube on steroids.
They will want to
influence the transfer process.
Where veteran workers
have been content to take
the learning and mentoring
processes at face value, young
professionals will not sit still
for methods they find not to
their liking.
Society has taught these
individuals to speak up and
suggest solutions. To dictate
the terms of knowledge
transfer will only alienate
them and encourage them to
look for ways to obtain the
knowledge on their terms,
thereby circumventing
organizational practices.
Rather than working to
control knowledge transfer
methodologies, organizations
will be better off learning
from these young workers
on how to best engage them.
Then a more dynamic learning
environment will evolve.
They will interpret and apply
knowledge in their own ways.
When one looks at the
creativity brimming forth
from some in their teens
WORKING
and twenties, it is easy
to understand why this
generation sees no limits on
how they can accomplish
the tasks at hand.
While this is
certainly not true of
all young workers,
organizations that
foster an environment
of flexibility based on
outcome will thrive
more readily than
those that follow a
protocol that confines
this youthful creativity
and enthusiasm.
Certainly clear
parameters must be
provided to ensure the
security and integrity
of proprietary knowledge knowledge workers will
and practices. But strict take the constant sharing of
control over the execution of knowledge for granted.
knowledge transfer should be But while this
discouraged. phenomenon can be viewed
They will work as a strength in transferring
collaboratively to share knowledge, organizations
knowledge. While some will have to be more vigilant
workforce veterans have been than ever in protecting their
known to hoard information proprietary information.
because they view it as an The canons of knowledge
element of job security, management and transfer
emerging professionals have yet to be fully defined.
appear to be at the opposite Yet without the input of
end of the spectrum. the emerging generation,
One of the things these practices may become
that can be learned from irrelevant prematurely.
this generation’s focus on Organizations that
electronic networking is that embrace the skills and desires
they will bring this practice of these young workers will
into the workplace at all better ensure the successful
levels. The speed with which transfer of knowledge in the
information is distributed coming years.
throughout the world is
seen everyday in social Robert W. Wendover is director of
networking. The Center for Generational Studies
Using this phenomenon, based in Aurora, Colo., US. Contact
coupled with the generation’s him at wendover@gentrends.com.
seemingly in-born prowess For a more in-depth exploration of
with technology, and it is this and other related issues, visit the
certainly understandable why Center’s Web site at www.gentrends.
com.
today’s and tomorrow’s young
SMART PEOPLE 35
WORKING
Ban Bullying
Nine out of ten British employees are victims
New statistics provided by
The Andrea Adams Trust in
conjunction with its national
campaign against bullying
in the workplace in Britain
indicates that out of 10,000 
participants of an online
survey –
• 92% of workers felt they are
currently being bullied;    adjunctprofs/2008/08/new-york-may-ba.html
• 49% of those indicated that
their immediate manager
was the bully;
• 56% of respondents stated
that in their workplace
bullying is a very serious
problem;
• 47.8% of respondents
stated that when they
36 SMART PEOPLE
made a formal complaint For a full list: http://www.
procedures were not banbullyingatwork.com/
followed correctly. supporters-and-links.html.
Links
http://www.banbullyingatwork.com/
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/
http://bulliedacademics.blogspot.com/2008/11/7th-
november-2008-ban-bullying-at-work.html
 Lyn Witheridge, founder  An official company
and CEO, said: “Leaving aside statement reads: “British
for a moment the emotional Airways is proud to be
aspect of bullying and the supporting Ban Bullying at
traumatic effect it can have on Work. We are committed
both targets and witnesses, to creating an environment
these figures indicate that where dignity and respect are
at last we are coming to our at the core of our relationship
senses and employees are with others.”
gaining the courage to speak At a recent country-wide
out against one of the most Ban Bullying at Work Day,
destructive forces at work the airline held workshops
today. and hosted stands to raise
awareness on practical aspects
Cannot turn a of dealing with harassment
blind eye, deaf ear and bullying.
She saw the response
as significant. “Turning a Trade union confirms
blind eye or a deaf ear is no findings
longer an option and we urge Trades Union Congress
everyone to join our national (TUC) General Secretary
campaign, now in its fifth Brendan Barber said “Our
year,” she says.  own survey shows concerns
Witheridge claims to have about bullying at work have
a number of supporters within increased by 25 percent since
government departments, 2006. And as the economic
the National Health Service, downturn puts workers
UK Primary Care trusts, the under greater strain, there is
Department of Health, several a danger that bullying could
universities and city councils spread even further.  There is
and scores of other private simply no excuse for bullying
and public organizations such at work.  It can leave people
as British Airways, a major traumatized, unable to work
sponsor. and unhappy after work, and
 WORKING

harms office morale too.  We

urge employers to look at their
working culture and policies
to ensure whenever bullying
rears its head at work, it is
stamped out straight away.”
TUC is the voice of Britain
at work with 58 affiliated
unions representing nearly
seven million working people.
Industrial Age culture
counter to Digital Economy
“The problem of bullying
is a social issue held over
from the dying Industrial
Age which treated people
as chattel and managed
them through command
and control,” Jerry Ash,
knowledge management
expert and publisher of Smart
People magazine, says.
“It is a culture that is
difficult to break in a new
era where managers must
become leaders and enablers
who create an environment
of openness, trust, innovation
and collaboration at all levels
of the organization. Those
who don’t won’t survive in the
Digital Economy.”
Children ban bullying with a brush stroke
One of the most effective places to address cultural issues is in the public schools.
Britain’s war on bullies starts in the classroom. Young people think differently and,
in the age of digital empowerment, will insist on personal and professional dignity
and respect.
Schoolchildren who won a ban bullying poster competition, organized by the University
of Essex, England, have visited the Colchester Campus to receive their prizes.
The University’s Equality and Diversity Unit ran the competition at the end of last
year, inviting local youngsters to design a poster on the theme of banning bullying. The
competition was held in support of the vice chancellor’s initiative to promote dignity and
respect on campus and formed part of National Anti-Bullying Week.
Joint winners in the 4-7 age group were Anna Hughes (Millfields Primary School,
Wivenhoe) and Rhianna Lawrie (Chase Lane Primary School, Dovercourt), while joint
winners in the 8-11 age group were Hettie Finn (Millfields Primary School, Wivenhoe) and
Charlotte Joiner (Hilltop Junior School, Wickford).
The prize winners, who attended the event with their parents and representatives from
their schools, received prizes of gift vouchers and engraved pens from Vice Chancellor
Professor Colin Riordan. They also went on a tour of the university and had a celebration
lunch at Wivenhoe House.
Syd Kent, from the Equality and Diversity Unit, said: “We were delighted with the
response and would like to thank everyone who took part; the overall standard was very
high.”
The issue of bullying is part of the National Curriculum and information about the
competition was sent to schools across the region, covering areas close to the university’s
campuses in Colchester, Loughton and Southend. The winning entries may be used in
future publicity campaigns to highlight dignity and respect.
Link: http://www.essex.ac.uk/news/event.aspx?e_id=497
Email: comms@essex.ac.uk

Big Brother bullying incident sparks deluge of calls to helpline

The “tirade of abuse”
unleashed by Channel 4’s Big
Brother contestant Alexandra
De Gale on her fellow
housemates Rebecca Shiner
and Rachel Rice, sparked by a
disagreement over some over-
cooked chips, has prompted a
deluge of calls to the
Andrea Adams Trust – the
most established UK charity
dedicated to preventing
workplace bullying.
The confrontation is
just the latest in a series of
incidents on high profile,
primetime TV programs
such as Big Brother and
The Apprentice, where real-
life bullying has been
portrayed on TV screens for
entertainment value.
It has also reportedly
resulted in more than 300
complaints to Channel 4 and
broadcast watchdog Ofcom.
“By taking a voyeuristic
approach to bullying
behaviors, reality TV
programs run the risk of
perpetuating the myth that
bullying is acceptable,”
says Lyn Witheridge, chief
executive of the Andrea
Adams Trust. “Sadly, when it
comes to bullying, failure to
challenge this type of behavior
is tantamount to condoning it.
Channel 4 should therefore be
congratulated in this instance
for making it very clear to
Alex that her behavior was
unacceptable.”
Link: http://www.
guardian.co.uk/media/
organgrinder/2008/jun/12/
anotherbigbrotherbullyingr

SMART PEOPLE 37
WORKING
Jobs galore
Forget recession. There’s a knowledge worker crisis.
In a recent issue of the Journal of
Professional Nursing, nurses were
defined as knowledge workers and
the role of knowledge became the
central focus of a new recruitment
policy for building a strong nursing
workforce.
Google “recruiting+knowledge
worker” and you will get 500,000
hits.
If all Baby Boomers do retire
on schedule (and some won’t),
employers will bleed knowledge at
an unprecedented, life-threatening
pace.
More significantly, employers
are beginning to get it. That is, they
are painfully aware that their most
important asset really is located in
the brains of its smart people.
This may be bad news for the
company, but good news for you.
Companies face a crisis
and many don’t even know it.
Knowledge savvy executives
and managers are acutely aware
of the threat to the company’s
future viability. Those who haven’t
embraced the idea of knowledge
management worry just as much
about all the expensive and
laborious training they will have to
spring for.
Smart people may be just as
oblivious to the meaning of the
38 SMART PEOPLE
knowledge factor in their own
lives unless their professional
journals, like the nursing journal,
have defined their people as
knowledge workers. And people in
all professions really are knowledge
workers.
Recruiters are now busy
retraining themselves to broker
this new kind of candidate – smart
people. They not only see the
growing demand for smart people;
they see the shortage coming.
The clear-eyed see the shortage
now. Yes now, when all the
attention is on unemployment.
Whether you are one of the
unemployed or the worried
employed, now is the time for you
to start looking at yourself as a
knowledge worker. And build on it.
The minute you begin thinking that
way, the future looks very bright.
Sure, take inventory. What you
know. What you think you know.
What you don’t know. How you can
contribute what you know for the
company. For yourself.
But most importantly, take some
of your spare time to learn how to
be a knowledge worker. In the right
work environment, knowledge
working comes naturally, but
unfortunately a majority of work
environments aren’t knowledge
work friendly. If you’re a Net Gener,
you won’t like that.
Become self-educated
about knowledge management
– whether or not your goal is to be
a knowledge manager. Truth is,
almost all the information you find
on “the knowledge thing” will be
management oriented. No problem.
Just do like Smart People magazine
does – turn it inside out. Take the
messages and revise them to your
point of view – the knowledge
worker.
Probably the best KM conference
of the year is coming up in Houston,
Texas May 11-15, at the Houstonian
Hotel, Club & Spa. I’ll be there. It’s
the product of the of APQC [www.
apqc.org/kmconf09].
The theme is The Knowledge
Transfer Revolution. Don’t worry
about it being over your head. KM
is not rocket science and the people
who attend are ordinary smart
people who work at different levels
of KM. This is the 14th Annual
Knowledge Management Conference
and Training event. I attended the
first and several since. I always come
away bristling with new ideas and
new energy. And I’m sure this year,
I’ll find some management stories I
can turn inside out!
~ Jerry Ash

The Knowledge Factor
When the Digital Gens meet the KMers
By Jerry Ash
For 175 years we have been
taught that people are hired
not for what they know,
but for what they can do.
They’ve been trained, handed
job descriptions and told
their futures depended on
performing to the standards.
Without regard for what
people have already learned,
we have been schooled and
trained in the company way.
You know the old yarn:
“The new hire is a college
graduate, but now the real
learning begins!” In that
scenario, having completed
an education – any education
– only means we’ve passed
a test that indicates we are
teachable.
For almost two centuries
the top-down industrial
model of management has
been the only model of
management – the one taught
in MBA schools and applied to
all work, even when it doesn’t
make sense. It works on the
assembly line, but it is a silly
way to run a hospital or any
knowledge-driven enterprise.
This has been the way
for dozens of generations.
It’s, like, in the genes. And
reinforced by a teaching
system where students are
taught but don’t learn, absorb
but don’t think.
The knowledge factor
The Industrial Era is over.
Sure, industry still exists. But
it no longer rules the economy.
The command and control
way of managing still exists
THE KNOWLEDGE FACTOR
but does not make sense The most important
in the knowledge-driven realization in Corporate KM
economy. has been that people are the
During the past 55 key. And the most important
years, courageous pioneers tool for unlocking and
of Knowledge Management extracting value from human
(KM) have been hard at work knowledge is the community
analyzing the Knowledge of practice (CoP).
Factor – observing a natural
shift in which people are
in transition from chattel
to knowledge worker.
Management guru Peter
Drucker first uttered the
phrase “knowledge worker”
in 1954, a lifetime before
today’s Digital Generation.
From the management
point of view, KM advocates
have been studying,
analyzing, theorizing,
experimenting, applying
lessons learned for the last
30 years. They have spent
fortunes to assemble a deep
body of knowledge about the
Knowledge Factor to exploit
knowledge in the workplace.
Many of these initiatives
have been hugely successful,
mostly in mega companies
in the global setting. And,
surprisingly, heavy industries
are among the winners
as they become aware of
themselves as knowledge-
driven enterprises.
All knowledge originates
in the human mind and
it can’t really be managed. The people factor
Rather, in a savvy enterprise, Unfortunately, ordinary
management gives way to smart people have not been
facilitation, with command privy to the dialogues. We’ve
and control giving way been programmed to stay
to a self-motivated, out of corporate’s business
knowledge seeking, sharing, and mind our own (unless
collaborating environment. NEXT PAGE
SMART PEOPLE 39
THE KNOWLEDGE FACTOR

Jerry Ash CONTINUED of formal education and change during their lifetimes
is former learning in the self-directed, and they still know how to
we work in research and
managing democratic world of the adjust to it. Many, like me,
development or something
editor, Inside Internet, Net Geners simply welcome it.
like that). And our experience
Knowledge reminds us to stay in our won’t cower to command and
magazine, control. The magazine factor
own domain; outsiders – even
author of several Having dabbled in Smart People magazine
inside the company – are
knowledge management for jumps into that cauldron of
books and unwelcome in other business
tens of years, business and change and synergy.
now publisher, units.
industry will be learning We are bringing
Smart People Further, rarely has the
from these Net Geners who knowledging to the
magazine. He dialogue stretched beyond the
are the future of everything. mainstream and we are
may be reached workplace to life or vice versa.
The savvy companies, the marrying it with the dynamics
online just about ones who have cherished of a Digital Generation
anywhere and The digital factor
the promise of knowledge that has never known a life
Meanwhile, the digital
directly at management, will be more without knowledge sharing,
factor has caught fire, bringing
smart.guy1@ than ready to catch up digital. learning, collaborating and
people to the Internet to seek,
verizon.net innovating.
learn, share, even collaborate
The age factor The Digitals need to know
and accomplish great things.
Because they will meet what the pioneers who have
Digitals are engaged in
in the digital space, the new gone before them have been
the rush to social networks
culture will also learn from doing to clear the way for
where they tell all to friends
and strangers, and yet they the old. The older generation(s) thinking differently. And, the
lack trust in communities of really are catching up digital. pioneers need to know the
And the Digital Generation, great opportunities riding the
practice (CoPs) set up by the
contrary to popular belief, wave of the New Gen.
hierarchy back on the farm.
are veritable sponges of In the spirit of the Digital
Into this clash of cultures
knowledge. Don’t make the Age, Smart People magazine
rides the Digital Generation
– Don Tapscott’s wired mistake of thinking that Mom will be different – a new
and Dad, the Boomers, aren’t media publication. It has been
warriors who are now ages 11
already learning from the developed collaboratively
to 32. They’ve never known a
world that wasn’t digital and kids. And pay attention to the with the help of 60 volunteers
grandparents too. Tapscott in an open space online. It is
they don’t understand a world
says the Digitals are very more than a magazine with
that has yet to adjust to its
great truths and principles. much family oriented, making feedback channels now at
the exchange of knowledge work in several of the major
There must be a grand
much more likely than many social networks – Facebook,
plan. Business really wants to
have predicted. MySpace, Linkedin, Twitter,
change, but it doesn’t know
I recently started a Xing and Ning. We are
how. The old ways are so
competitive tennis league for offering Webinars and talk
ingrained into the structure of
men age 60-90. As I gathered radio featuring some of our
the company and the culture
contact information I asked authors. And we are working
of both company and the
for their email addresses. All on a virtual reality Meeting
people it hurts. But here come
the Digitals, unencumbered but one had one. And the one and Conference Center which
who didn’t was embarrassed will become the first resident
by the past and intent on the
and said he would be getting of our Smart People Online
future. And older generations
an address soon! Now, email Community.
are catching up digital.
may be so yesterday, but Together, we will change
As usual, this latest
these guys are wired and the the way we live, laugh, learn
generation and the changing
young of mind are capable and earn our livelihoods.
generations will be ridiculed
but they won’t be broken. of changing their ways. Yes,
After surviving the hierarchy Boomers+ have weathered

40 SMART PEOPLE
 Once upon
a time
there was
a princess
. . . whose dreams were trapped inside her sleepy head.

Along came Smar t People

and the world was never the same.
10 kisses sold here for $ 50 $ 25 USD
Limited time only

Smart People magazine is a new media publication

awakening in you the power of knowledge much
sought after by employers worldwide. This power
has always been there but the Web has multiplied
it a million times and, unknowingly, you are using
your smarts (and those of others) every day – living,
learning, choosing, working.
Wake up to the power.
Subscribe now: www.smartpeoplemagazine.com
Available in three formats: Online flipbook, html and pdf
 Keynote
Speakers The KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER Revolution:
NEW Paradigms, NEW Payoffs
APQC’s 14th Annual Knowledge Management
Carla O’Dell, PhD
President APQC Conference and Training
May 11-15, 2009
Houstonian Hotel, Club and Spa
Christopher Meyer
Chief Executive Houston, Texas
Monitor Networks

www.apqc.org/kmconf09

Alan Deutschman
Author
Change or Die: The Three
Keys to Change at Work
and in Life

John McQuary
Vice President, KM
and Technology
Strategies, Fluor Corp.

Rob Cross
Professor of
Management,
University of Virginia
and Research Director,
The Network Roundtable

Victor Newman
Author
The Knowledge Activist’s
Handbook: Adventures
from the Knowledge
Trenches

Bryant Clevenger
Global Leader, IBM Global
Business Services,
Knowledge Sharing
Strategy