mart

Speople
Digital generations bring knowledge to life

Volume 1
Issue 6
OCTOBER 2009
SM

Bridging digital
divide
Alabama K-12 Free “intraprise”
students master Opportunities
21st century skills for smart people
inside the firm

Space invasion
Cross boundaries at your own risk

The few, Digital native Part III: Saving the

the proud, manifesto – company – If the boss
the digitally creed of the doesn’t “get it,” smart
disconnected . . . “grown up digital” people will
Wouldn’t you just love to tap these phones?
Transfer the passion
Your organization recognizes the value of knowledge. A great deal of money
has been spent on process and systems. But too many of your people aren’t
enthusiastic adopters.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could transfer their energy from those outside
social networks they love and get the same kind of knowledge-sharing and
collaboration going at work? You can.
Smart People bridges the gap
Smart People magazine taps into the social networking craze and connects
the energy to the work place. It’s a cool tool to help people realize the
benefits of both networking and knowledge working.
Now you can co-brand the magazine with special features specific to the
organization. Then you make it available to all your knowledge workers, even
clients and suppliers. They’ll love it, and it will change the culture and the
way things get done around your place.
Smart People and Smart Organizations
Contact Smart People publisher, Jerry Ash
smart.guy1@smartpeoplemagazine.com
for details. Or call him: 813.335.1355
 PDUW
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Volume 1
Issue 6
OCTOBER 2009

LIVING Cover story

4 Space invasion
In business or personal
6 Digital native manifesto conversation, cross the
German student and a journalist boundaries at your own
write creed of the “grown up risk.
digital.”

9 Heavy lifting
We give “weight”’ to intangible
thoughts like opinions. Why?

Also in this issue LEARNING

Eight norms of readers 3
The Knowledge Factor 30
KM Six Pack
Part Five of a series of six
articles introduces newly
engaged employees and
managers to the basics
of knowledge-based
enterprise.
10 Bridging the digital divide
Alabama school systems inspire students to
master 21st century skills.
13 In the U.S. Congress
Hearings focus on STEM education – science,
technology, engineering and math.

14 The few, the proud . . . CHOOSING

Marines retreat from social
networks while
others push the 16 To err is human
envelope plus To make a mistake is a different
virtual matter. When are missteps
panhandling okay, not okay?
and where’s the
money? 18 In-your-face dressing
I make so much money, I don’t
have to dress to impress.” Sets
bad trend.
SMART PEOPLE 1
SMART PEOPLE

CREATING
20 Free “intraprise” – Part I
Can’t do it on your own? Fruitful
opportunities for entrepreneurs
inside the organization.

22 Trust your teammates

“Sticking together” is
highest form of collaboration
according to 7’4” pro.

WORKING
24 Saving the 28 Sneaky vacations
company Without letting your boss, company or clients know.
Part III
If the boss doesn’t “get
it,” the future is in
the hands of ordinary
smart people people.

27 Analysis
paralysis
Your ego is the
reason. Here 29 Do generational differences matter?
are some tips on If the differences matter, what do we do about them?
overcoming your
fear of failure.

In the November issue

Mojo boosters: Is your mojo in “slow mo”? Coming: Five
simple ways to increase your energy output.
Innovators got to do it! They don’t take lessons, read books,
they just do it. It’s kind of like creative autism.
Dog sense: Although you wouldn’t want them to
balance your checkbook, dogs can count.

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

Tom Davenport Jane Dysart David Gurteen Alice MacGillivray Robert Wendover The Smart People Magazine Board of Directors is being
Information Library and Knowledge Smart People Generational
Technology Information Science Management Networkers Studies carefully and 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@smartpeoplemagazine.com

EDITORIAL BOARD

SMART PEOPLE 3
COVER STORY
Space invasion
Cross the boundaries at your own risk
By Carol Kinsey Goman
As a consultant and
professional speaker, I
often travel by myself and
frequently dine alone.
This affords me the
opportunity to combine
two of my favorite pastimes:
eating great food and
watching people.
One night at dinner in
an oceanside resort, I noticed
a man and a woman seated
across the room. It was a
beautiful image and it caught
my attention.
4 SMART PEOPLE
The couple sat in
silhouette, framed by a
large picture window, while
the setting sun turned the
background shades of yellow,
orange, magenta and deep
purple.  anything that was said. In the
Then I began to observe
the couple’s body language.
During the course of the
meal, I watched the man lean
toward the woman – and saw
her respond by pulling away
from him.
He leaned toward her
again – and again she pulled
away. The more the man
leaned forward, the more his
dinner companion would tilt
back.
By dessert, he was almost
sprawled across the table and
she was practically falling off
her chair.
I couldn’t hear a
word they were
saying, but it
was perfectly
obvious
that whatever he
was proposing
– she wasn’t
signing on! 
He would have been
much more successful
if he had (literally)
backed off.  n The intimate zone (0-18
Last month I
was reminded of
that episode as
I sat at another
restaurant
watching two
men at the bar.
This time I
was close enough
to overhear their
conversation, so I knew that
one man was in sales and the
other was a potential client.
By the time they’d finished
their drinks, I also knew the
deal was dead. And it wasn’t
midst of a normal “getting-
to-know-you” conversation, I
watched the salesman move
so close to his prospect that
the client began, very slowly,
to inch away.
This went on for some
time, but finally the client
could stand it no longer. He
excused himself to make
a phone call – and left the
restaurant shortly afterward. 
One of the easiest
mistakes to make during an
encounter with someone is to
misjudge how much space the
other person needs.
Anthropologist Edward
Hall coined the word
“proxemics” to describe
phenomena like territoriality
among office workers. And
it was he who first noted the
five zones in which people
feel most comfortable dealing
with one another. (It’s as if
we’re standing inside an
invisible bubble that expands
or contracts depending on our
relationships.)
inches) is reserved for
family and loved ones.
Within this zone we
embrace, touch or whisper.
This close contact is
appropriate only for very
personal relationships.
n The close personal
zone (1.5-2 feet) is the
“bubble” most people in

the United States like to
keep around us. This zone
is used for interactions
among friends or familiar
and trusted business
partners.  becomes part of what is being
n A far personal zone (2-4
feet) is for interactions
we prefer to conduct “at
arms length” and in this
zone we can communicate
interest without the
commitment of touching.
n The social zone (4-12 feet)
is most appropriate for
the majority of most daily
business interactions.
It is where we interact
with new business
acquaintances or at more
formal social affairs.
n The public zone (over 12
feet) is mostly used for
public speaking.
The amount of space
required to feel comfortable
varies from individual to
individual.
People who don’t like
being touched will tend to
“keep their distance” from
others. People who touch
others while talking will want
to get close enough to do so.  zones.
Space can also vary
depending on the amount
of trust in a relationship. A
general rule is: The greater the
distance, the lower the level of
trust.
We also make
assumptions about
relationships based on zones.
If we see two people talking
at a distance of around two
feet from each other, we
assume they are engaged in
the kind of conversation only
possible between those who
know and trust each other.
So, their spatial relationship
communicated.
Gender plays an important
role too. Men who don’t know
each other well tend to keep a
greater distance between them
than women who have just
met.
This difference in
interpersonal distance as
determined by gender is even
true in Web 2.0’s virtual online
worlds (like Second Life)
where many of the rules that
govern personal space in the
physical world can be found in
the virtual world.
And, of course, the
comfortable distance between
participants varies with
culture.
In the U.S. most business
relationships begin in
the social zone. As the
relationships develop and
trust is formed, both parties
may subconsciously decrease
the distance to more personal
But if one of the parties
moves too close too soon, it
can result in a communication
breakdown.  Anyone who oversteps
Those who feel powerful
and confident will usually
control more physical space,
extending their arms and legs
and generally taking up more
room. In doing so, they may
unknowingly infringe on
another person’s territory.
Police interrogators often
use the strategy of sitting
close and crowding a suspect.
This theory of interrogation
assumes that invasion of
the suspect’s personal space
(with no chance for defense)
COVER STORY
will give the officer a Carol Kinsey
psychological advantage. Goman, PhD, is
I’ve also seen managers an author and
keynote speaker
standing uncomfortably
who addresses
close to employees in order to
association,
emphasize their status in the government,
organization. and business
Not a good idea.  audiences
Scientists agree that around the
people’s territorial responses world. Her
are primitive and powerful. latest book and
And a mistake here can program topic is
trigger a truly deep-seated The Nonverbal
response. When someone Advantage
comes too close in an – Secrets and
Science of Body
undesirable way, it triggers
Language at
a physiological reaction in
Work. 
the other person as heart rate For more
and galvanic skin responses information,
increase. contact Carol
The other person then by phone:
tries to restore the “proper” 510.526.1727,
distance by looking away, email:
stepping behind a barrier CGoman@CKG.
(desk, chair, table), crossing com, or through
their arms to create a barrier, her Web sites:
pulling back to create space, www.CKG.
com and www.
or tucking in the chin as an
Nonverbal.
instinctive move of protection.
Advantage.com.
Getting too close is an
especially improper move in
circumstances where workers,
colleagues or clients are in
danger of feeling emotionally
or physically threatened by
the invasion on their personal
space.
space boundaries is perceived
as rude, aggressive or socially
clueless.
So keep your distance.
Respecting another person’s
space can help you build
rapport with your colleagues
and close sales with your
clients.
SMART PEOPLE 5
LIVING

LIVING The digital native manifesto

Robert Dürhager is a student of philosophy and computer sciences at the Free
University of Berlin with a special focus on the culture of the Internet and its impact
on society. Timo Heuer works as a journalist and is a trailblazer for the Web. His
special concern is the future of the Internet and journalism. Together they have
produced a manifesto for digital natives.
By Robert Dürhager This makes us individuals Networks make better
and Timo Heuer in the differentiation of our problem-solvers
networks, ubiquitously and We work in networks and
We are the assimilators of pervasively online, as peers collaborate in dynamic and
digital culture; the lives we in constant touch with our open network teams.
lead are digitized. This is networks. Collective intelligence
our manifesto. It is intended The exchange of culture in plays a big role in our working
for all those who want to the net is our mission; an open lives. Crowdsourcing is a
communicate or collaborate society is our goal. concept that doesn’t just shape
with us. our way of working but our
The Net impacts the world whole way of thinking, too.
We are the We digital natives The huge range of
‘Generation Internet’ understand virtuality as part communication instruments
We are the evolution of the of reality. Even if virtuality is now on hand – from micro-
television generation whose not a physical phenomenon, it blogs to Wikis – means that
collective fate of passivity even still has a major influence on we can collaborate with others
now still marks culture and thought and feeling. at any time on any kind of
society. Consider the Internet as a topic.
Because the lives of mental space to see that its A job that used to take
viewers take place behind impact is true hours can now take only a
closed doors, they develop reality. For us few minutes with a micro-
their own individuality in being online is not posting. We do not measure
opposition to the herd. a flight from the difficulty of a problem
Yet whilst the television reality but in terms of how much
generation still hides participation in the knowledge any one individual
behind pseudonyms in its virtually extended has but rather by his/her
excursions into the real world of ability to communicate in
interactive Internet the 21st networks.
and never drops the century. Depending on the degree
role of the passive of individual networking,
visitor, consuming we can almost always
content merely in a find a solution to every
new way, we are the problem.
ones who truly live Even so,
out interactivity as crowdsourcing
pro-active users. can only function
when the work is
accessible to all.
This is why we digital
natives call for
digital openness and digital
modernization of the world of
work.

6 SMART PEOPLE

Too many ideas have
withered before seeing the
light of day. They never had a
chance to change the world or
at least garner sympathy for
the venture.
Flexibilization, mobilization
and globalization of work
Traditional nine-to-five
jobs are a leftover from the
industrial age. It is now high
time to free work from the
constraints of rigid labor
models.
As network individuals,
our global contacts are in
different time zones so that
traditional working hours are
counterproductive for us. And
we also want to bring more
flexibility into the way we do
our work.
Different tasks can
be combined to make for
quicker and more efficient
performance while the
synergy thus created can
enrich content with new ideas.
In a similar vein, we are
not bound to any particular
workplace and prefer to use
the spot that seems most
convenient at the moment – a
café, an office or a home office.
The Internet gives us easy
access to all the relevant data
and instruments no matter
where we are.
Flexible, open domain
modes of work, flat
hierarchies, participation,
trust, motivating challenges
and results-oriented proper
payment are the qualities of
work we subscribe to.
Work can only be
a private affair
Along with proper
remuneration, our value
system also recognizes the
importance of personal
development and personal
motivation.
Such a schema makes
it difficult to differentiate
between private life and the
world of work.
For us it’s a fact of life that
many matters and concerns
fall into both categories
and thus must always be
measured against personal
benchmarks and general
moral values.
This means we rate a
workplace in terms of the
opportunities for personal
growth it offers us and the
motivating qualities of the
working environment.
What we value in
companies is not just such
transparency and openness,
but the social interaction
they afford us with other
employees and the work
environment.
Our commitment to the
public domain
Because we know that
our strength lies in public
collaboration, we freely
share our intellectual capital
and thus create resources of
knowledge freely available to
all.
Competitive modes of
thought are strange to us
even though we do engage
in competition, striving
for better ideas and public
acknowledgment of what we
have achieved.
We recognize the
potential of free knowledge
and call for free access to
all research findings and
learning material supported
by taxpayers money.
We equally call for all
institutions of education to
be given the financial and
material support that enables
LIVING
them to use
all the media
competencies
needed to
pass on such
information
to future
generations.
For us it
is of the very
essence that
free knowledge
resources
are financed,
nurtured and
made freely
available to
everybody.
As digital
natives we
support all initiatives that
seek to make information
and tools freely available
and reuseable. We view
new media in general as
an opportunity for a better
world.
Their ability (in the sense
of the Latin virtus for strength
or virtue) to disseminate and
process information enables
people to communicate
and interact with one
another in a huge variety of
unprecedented ways.
This means that even
now our digital culture is
calling geographic, cultural
and thus also political
boundaries radically into
question, offering a genuine
opportunity to create a
participative and democratic
cosmopolitan world.
We digital natives are
citizens of the world and one
of the first global generations.
The first step toward a
participative democratic
global politics would be
unlimited transparency
of political business and
NEXT PAGE
SMART PEOPLE 7
LIVING
The digital native manifesto
CONTINUED
decision-making coupled
with the development of
online participation in all its
multifarious variety.
The Net has its own culture
We understand the
Internet as a socio-cultural
space. We inform its content
with our real identities and
enrich its sociability with our
own social relationships.
In the framework of
legality – and sometimes in
constructive dialogue with
the same – it is we who are
the executive, our morals the
judiciary and our code the
legislature.
It is our vigilance that
elects a fourth estate. In the
global diversified reality
In 2007, Robert
Dürhager began
a blog on Internet
philosophy on the
multi-author project
he founded [www.
philosophieblog.
de]. As a blogger
and speaker at media
conferences, he develops and publicizes
philosophical theories on ‘E-democracy
Social Activism’, ‘Open Everything’ and
networked identity. In 2008 he was
elected to the Working Committee of the
Social Media Working Collective which
aims to establish standards for surveying
and researching social software and
co-founded the Socialbar; a series of
open events which connects civil society
initiatives in various cities and gives
them a deeper understanding of the
potential of Web 2.0.
8 SMART PEOPLE
of our networks, what we
consider as relevant is above
all that which is socially
relevant.
Our multi-dimensional
networks offer us the means
to exchange experience and
make collective evaluations.
Given our social
relationships, proposals
and data from one of these
networks are particularly
important.
As digital natives we are
fully aware that our culture
is dependent on technological
progress.
And this is precisely
why we make early use of
technical innovations – both
to sound out the possibilities
they embody for developing
our culture, and to use our
feedback to counter and
Timo Heuer
discovered his
passion for media
at a very early age
when he published
and sold his own
“newspaper” to
neighbors and
friends. From August
2008 to July 2009 he was an intern at
the T3N print magazine in Hanover,
Germany. Timo Heuer is a member
of the Think Tank 30, the young think
tank of the Club of Rome. He is also a
blogger (www.timoheuer.com) and a
typical early adopter.
correct bad courses of
development.
The Net belongs to the future
Like every medium, the
Internet also has its weak
points.
Yet interactivity and
networking make for greater
transparency which is why the
Internet is superior to other
mass media.
The opportunity it
provides for poly-directional
communication also enables
the creation of a much more
highly differentiated picture
of reality which makes the
Internet itself the ideal medium
for a postmodern world.
Rightly so, the Net is
establishing itself as the
leading medium and its open
culture is more suited than
any other to serve as the
benchmark for the just society
of the future.
This work is published under
a Creative Commons Attribu-
tion-Noncommercial-Share
Alike 3.0 Germany.
http://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/de/
deed.en_US. The manifest was
translated by Paul Morland.
The article was first published
in German language in: Buhse,
W.; Reinhard, U. (Hg.): DNA-
digital - Wenn Anzugträger
auf Kapuzenpullis treffen.
whois, 2009: 12-17. ISBN: 978-
934013-98-8, link:
http://tinyurl.com/dnad-book

Hey man, that’s too heavy!
Weighty. Heavy. These are
words we routinely attach to
intangibles like thoughts and
opinions.
But how do these words
affect our thinking? What do
these words have to do with
seriousness and importance?
Why do we weigh our
options, and why does your
opinion carry more weight
than mine?
New research suggests
that we can blame this on
gravity.
Heavy objects require
more energy to move, and
they can hurt us more if we
move them clumsily.
So we learn early on in
life to think more and plan
more when we’re dealing with
heftier things. They require
more cognitive effort as well
as muscular effort.
This leads to the
intriguing possibility that the
abstract concept of importance
is grounded in our very real
experience of weight.
Could the various
metaphors involving weight
derive from our body’s actual
struggle with the force of
gravity?
In a study appearing
in Psychological Science, a
journal of the Association
for Psychological Science,
University of Amsterdam
psychologist Nils Jostmann
and his colleagues speculated
that actually carrying a
heavy weight, rather than
a light weight, would make
people judge issues as more
important in various ways.
In a series of experiments,
volunteers held clipboards,
some heavy and some light.
LIVING
While doing so, they were to take lightweight, but in
asked to fill out a number of fact important matters, too
questionnaires. In one study, lightly.”
they were asked to estimate
the value of various foreign
currencies and indeed, the
researchers found that those
with the heavy clipboard saw
the money as more valuable
and important.
The researchers also tested
the effects of weight on the
more abstract idea of justice.
Volunteers (still holding
their clipboards) were
presented with a fictional
scenario in which students
were deliberately excluded
from an important university
decision, and were asked how
important it was for them to
have a voice at the table.
Those with the heavier
clipboards saw the exclusion
of the students as a more
important justice issue than
did those with a lighter load.
They ran the same
experiment a couple different
ways, always with the
identical result.
That is, the actual heft of
the clipboard made volunteers
think more elaborately and
more abstractly about a Psychological Science is
number of issues. ranked among the top 10
This research adds to general psychology journals
the emerging literature on for impact by the Institute
“embodied cognition” – which for Scientific Information.
suggests that the body is For a copy of the article
crucial for how the mind “Weight as an Embodiment
works. of Importance” and access
“Gravitational pull not to other Psychological Science
only shapes people’s bodies research findings, contact
and behavior, but influences Catherine Allen-West at
their very thoughts,” the cwest@psychologicalscience.
authors conclude. org.
Jostmann also notes
that this can work in the
opposite, “misleading people
SMART PEOPLE 9
LEARNING
LEARNING Bridging the digital divide
Alabama provides students 21st century skills
By John Norton
Kurtavia, a first grader at
George Hall Elementary in
inner-city Mobile, Alabama,
sits at a computer bigger than
she is and strikes several keys.
A window pops up on the
screen and when she clicks
the “play” button, we see a
colorful image of a group of
firefighters battling a blaze.
As the documentary
slide show rolls by, we can
hear Kurtavia clearly and
succinctly narrating from her
own script, describing a field
trip her class made recently
to the Mobile Fire Training
Center and several area fire
stations.
“They had a black and
white dog,” Kurtavia says
when we ask her to sum up
the experience.
10 SMART PEOPLE
“It was a fire school. We
learned how the firemen keep
safe when they’re putting
out a fire. We sang songs
about fire safety and heard
the alarm go off. They had a
puppet show.”
This six-year-old girl
from one of Mobile’s most
depressed neighborhoods
is fully aware that her
photostory – one of many
student-created products
posted to the school’s
WetPaint wiki site – can be
viewed by anyone anywhere
in the world with Web access
(http://tinyurl.com/ya4fcmw).
To Kurtavia, it’s an
exciting process that allows
her to share something
important from her own life
experience. “Other children
can learn from this, too,” she
says.
Kurtavia is less aware that
by creating this Web-based
product, which requires her
to analyze and synthesize
information from different
sources, she has begun to
make her way across the
digital divide – taking her
first steps toward a future
in which such skills will be
essential to her success.
Equity in the new
millennium
Like most labels that
emerge as shorthand ways
to dramatize a problem, the
expression digital divide has
developed layers of meaning
over time.
Can we simply define the
digital divide, as Wikipedia
does, to be the gap between
those with regular, effective
access to digital and
information technology, and
those without this access?
Consider, though, that
some schools serving students
on the wrong side of the
divide may (as a result of
federal and local funding or
grant opportunities) have
multiple computers in every
classroom, fully equipped
technology labs, a totally
wired building with wireless
Internet capability, and a
certified technology teacher.
Teachers and principals
in high-poverty schools who
participated in the Alabama
Best Practice Center’s
Microsoft-sponsored 21st
Century Learners program
say that the technology gap
is not just about hardware
and software – or the basic
training needed to use digital
tools in the classroom. It’s also
about:
n Home access – Many 21st
century-minded teachers in
more affluent schools are
extending their students’
learning experiences by
creating Web sites, blogs and
wikis that engage learners
before and after school in
discussions and projects. In
higher-needs schools, the
percentage of students with
high-speed Internet access at
home is much lower, making
it difficult for teachers to
justify online enrichment
activities outside of school
hours.

n Parent concerns
– While parents at every
socio-economic level have
concerns about the potential
negatives of technology and
the Internet, these concerns
are more pronounced among
families where adults have
little personal experience
with the “digital age” and
rely on secondary sources
of information (news media,
church, social gatherings) to
form their opinions. When
parent resistance is high,
schools are less likely to
pursue activities that require
access to Web-based tools,
email accounts, and the like.
n Focus – In schools with
many struggling students,
the intense focus on raising
student test scores and trying
to meet the federal No Child
Left Behind law’s Adequate
Yearly Progress (AYP)
benchmarks discourages
using new technologies
and new ways of teaching.
Computers often become
instruments of remeditation
and drill, rather than portals
to Web-based tools and
networks to help students
develop problem-solving and
virtual collaboration skills.
n Staffing – Several rural
and inner-city principals
told us that – given the
smaller recruitment pools
available to them – it’s more
difficult to hire teachers
who have a background in
technology-infused teaching,
or at least some enthusiasm
for acquiring the necessary
knowledge and skills. In rural
areas in particular, schools
often have older, more stable
faculties who frequently
prefer to stick with tried-and-
true methods.
LEARNING
n Sustainability – What
happens when a high-poverty,
high-performing elementary
school develops a strong focus
on 21st century learning but
sends students on to a middle
school with little awareness
or interest in integrating
technology into instruction?
While this problem is by no
means unique to high-needs
schools, it is more common
– and the consequences of this
lack of continuity are more
dire for students in poverty.
In the minds of urban and
rural educators determined
to narrow the digital divide,
these are obstacles to be
overcome – not impenetrable
barriers that relieve their
schools of the obligation to
help their students develop
the skill sets (http://tinyurl.
com/ybejvmu) experts say
will be sought after in the 21st information. But in our school
century workplace. we’ve come to see that it is a
lot more than that. It’s about
“Our kids must learn it here” whole new ways to work and
Nearly 100 percent of think and learn, to conduct
students at George Hall your business and your life.”
Elementary meet federal Tomlinson knows well
poverty guidelines. Many that the first responsibility of
walk to school through a teachers at George Hall is to
crime-worn neighborhood assure children have the math
where it is not unusual to and literacy skills they need to
see illegal drugs and stolen become self-learners.
Hall meets that
property being sold from the
obligation unequivocally
trunks of automobiles.
Principal Terri Tomlinson – it’s a National Blue Ribbon
School that has also earned
estimates that fewer than 15
Alabama’s Torchbearer Award
percent of her students have
(recognizing high-achieving,
access to high-speed Internet
at home. “If our kids are going high-poverty schools) five
years running.
to learn these 21st Century
But Tomlinson and her
skills, they are going to need
faculty are not satisfied to
to get it here in our building.”
invest all of the school’s time
Tomlinson says many
and attention on basic skills
K-12 educators across the
and the lower tiers of Bloom’s
U.S. still see technology and
the Internet “as just another
NEXT PAGE
way to obtain or manage
SMART PEOPLE 11
LEARNING
Bridging the digital divide
CONTINUED
Taxonomy of Learning (http://
tinyurl.com/7pjm6p).
They want their students
to have the same chance to
compete in an innovation-
based economy as children
from the most privileged
public schools in Alabama and
the nation.
With the right support
and leadership, Tomlinson
says, teachers can have the
best of both worlds. She uses
the example of George Hall’s
regular field trips, (http://
tinyurl.com/y9ew5el), which
not only expose children
(many of whom have never
12 SMART PEOPLE
before ventured much beyond initiative, says students have
their inner city neighborhood) come a long way in a short
to the larger world but are time.
carefully integrated into “I think what we’re
the reading and writing finding out is that if you
curriculum. expose them to learning with
“Deep learning is not digital tools, they are much
just being able to regurgitate more ready to do these things
the definition of a word,” she than we think.”
explains. Media specialist Patti
“It’s actually being Westbrook summed up the
able to reach that level of view of many teachers at
understanding where you’ve George Hall when she said:
really ingested that word and “These children can’t be
you can put it back out in limited by where they are,
various ways.” where they live, or where
After each field trip, they were born. It’s our job
students return to school and as teachers in this school to
create Webcasts documenting show them there are no limits
what they have seen and to learning. There’s nothing
learned they can’t do, with the right
during their teaching and coaching and
travels. the right use of technology.”
“The
children The Alabama Best Practices
are actually Center was established in
talking about mid-1999 by A+ as a public/
where they’ve private partnership to focus on
been and improving student achievement
what they’ve by raising the quality of
learned, teaching through professional
using new development.
vocabulary
in authentic John Norton is an education
contexts,” writer and virtual teacher
says community developer based in
Tomlinson. North Carolina. He is editor of
And Working Toward Excellence,
Hall’s www.bestpracticescenter.org/
students want publ/wteindex.html, the journal
to get it right, of the Alabama Best Practices
because they Center.
understand
that a
vast Web audience may be
listening and learning from
them.
Fourth grade teacher Amy
Lowe, a leader in developing
the school’s digital divide
 LEARNING

In U.S. Congress Visit the

Web site:
Committee looks to improve K-12 STEM education http://
Regardless of the current Federal emphasis on teaching basics and relying on test science.
scores, President Barrack Obama initiated a new emphasis on science, technology, house.gov/
engineering and math (STEM) and a U.S. House subcommittee continues to look for default.aspx
ways to improve the program.  
The House Committee on Science and Technology’s Research and Science Education
Subcommittee held a hearing this summer to examine how the public and private stakeholders
in an urban K-12 system can work together to improve science, technology, engineering and
mathematics education both inside and outside of the classroom. Specifically, the hearing
focused on Chicago, and the exemplary collaborative efforts there involving the private, public
and nonprofit sectors.
“In hearings and reports we have repeatedly heard that innovation is key to maintaining a
high standard of living for all Americans, and that we need more teachers and more graduates
in the STEM fields if we want our country to continue to lead in the global economy,” said
Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Lipinski (Democrat–Illinois). “But we know there is no panacea
and no one entity that can solve this alone.  Reform of our STEM education system will require
coordination on multiple fronts and across many diverse stakeholders.”
Improvements in the nation’s STEM education system are vital to maintaining and
strengthening our economic competitiveness. Since many decisions in education happen at
the local level, the committee took a case-study look at how STEM partnerships and systemic
initiatives are working in the Chicago Public Schools, the third-largest school district in America.
 “Chicago’s diverse population of over four hundred thousand public school students, its
top-notch universities, and the commitment of local industry, the school system, and city leaders
make it an ideal case study for understanding what works in improving STEM education and
what can be done at the federal level to encourage best practices across the country,” Lipinski
said. 
Subcommittee Members heard testimony from witnesses representing many of the key
stakeholders in K-12 STEM education.
n Maggie Daley, chair of After School Matters (ASM), discussed the important role of informal
education and what ASM is doing to teach and engage young people in STEM fields. 
n Dr. Wanda Ward, acting assistant director for Education and Human Resources at the
National Science Foundation (NSF), testified about the NSF’s role in providing support for
systemic approaches to STEM education through programs such as the Math and Science
Partnerships program.
n Michael Lach, Office of Teaching and Learning at Chicago Public Schools, discussed the
successes and challenges of the many STEM education partnerships and initiatives that have
been developed in Chicago.
n Dr. Donald Wink, director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Chemistry and
director of Graduate Studies in Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of
Illinois, discussed the university’s role in helping with K-12 STEM education, especially
through NSF support.
n Katherine Pickus, divisional vice president of Global Citizenship and Policy at Abbott,
testified about the importance of a STEM literate workforce to Abbott and about the role that
Abbott scientists play in improving STEM education in their own communities.
 The subcommittee has made STEM education a top priority during the 111th Congress. This was
the third hearing this year.

SMART PEOPLE 13
CHOOSING
The few, the proud, the digitally disconnected . . .
CHOOSING plus virtual panhandling and where’s the money?
By Chris Reimer
Although some branches of
the military are actively using
social networks for mission-
related work, the U.S. Marines
have decided against them.
Recently, the USMC
officially banned social
networking sites like
MySpace, Facebook and
Twitter from military
networks, although individual
Marines are still welcome to
use them on their own time,
with their own hardware.
The reason? The official
directive says “the very
nature of these sites creates a
larger attack and exploitation
window, exposes unnecessary
information to adversaries
and provides an easy conduit
for information leakage.”
Hard to argue with that.
It’s a not new concern, of
course. Since at least World
War II, military personnel
have been warned about
revealing too much in their
letters home. And the risk of
leaks increases as technology
becomes more portable.
Earlier this year, someone
found sensitive military
information on a used
MP3 player purchased in
Oklahoma.
Now, it will be interesting
to see if the other services
follow the Marines’ lead, or
continue to use these tools
to communicate internally
and with the public. And if
the military does move away
from social networking, will
corporate America follow?
14 SMART PEOPLE
The virtual panhandler
As the Web evolves,
it’s only natural that more
and more human activities
will be reinvented in some
kind of virtual counterpart.
Unfortunately, they won’t
always be good ones.
Certainly spammers
deserve to be considered
“organized” criminals, not
to mention phishers and the
owners of botnets and various
other kinds of ne’er do well.
(Phishing is the
criminally fraudulent
process of attempting to
acquire sensitive information
by masquerading as a
trustworthy entity in an
electronic communication.
Botnet is a jargon term for
a collection of software
robots – or bots – that
run autonomously and
automatically.)
But we’ve noticed a new
kind of independent agent
working through Skype, that’s
managed to virtualize the
experience of panhandling.
You can reach Knowledge
Street through Skype, as
shown by the buttons on our
profile page.
Since we’ve got that
contact point just hanging out
there, and since we haven’t
opted to block strangers, we
occasionally get a cold call,
generally in the form of an
instant message.
These panhandlers almost
always present themselves
as young women from the
developing world, although
they could just as easily
be geezers in Teaneck, N.J.
They’re nice folks, really,
and just want to chat with
someone.
In Skype’s early days, this
was actually suggested as a
benefit, a way to meet new
people in other parts of the
world and thereby broaden
your horizons. Theoretically,
that’s still true.
With the panhandlers
though, the chats escalate
pretty quickly to sad stories
about not having a computer
at home or needing money for
an operation.
For a time, Skype had its
own “Send Money” feature
which made it really easy.
Now, the panhandlers also
have to coax you over to
PayPal. But if they’re good,
that’s probably not too hard.
Where the money goes
If you like graphical
displays of complex
information – and hey, who
doesn’t – you should take a
look at the recently launched
Federal IT Dashboard
[http://it.usaspending.gov].
It’s a layered graphic
interface that displays cost,
schedule and milestone
information on everything
IT within the federal
government.
Everything that’s
happening is described as an
“investment,” which may be
a bit of spin doctoring, but
assuming it’s telling the truth,
this is an impressive level of
transparency.
According to U.S. CIO
Vivek Kindra, “The entire
country can now look at how

we’re spending money and
give us feedback . . . . We’re
going to tap into some of
the best ideas and the best
thinking.”
The site itself is a mash-
up of existing technology and
was built in only six weeks,
which is pretty impressive all
by itself.
At the top level, you
can identify investments
that are in trouble, and then
drill down to see what’s
wrong. (The Department of
Veterans’ Affairs Blood Bank
Modernization Program isn’t
doing too well.)
There are some cool
analytic displays to show how
departmental budgets have
changed relative to each other
over the last five years.
It’s easy to spot projects
that are behind schedule and/
or over budget, but there’s not
much that would tell you why,
or what’s being done about it.
There are also quite a few
places where standard links
take you to “match not found”
messages.
Still, it’s just a beta version,
and it’s certainly a good start.
The Senate likes it.
Your own personal
card catalog
Speaking of tools, we
stumbled across one that
inspired a deep sense of
gadget lust. Sadly, it’s only
available for the Mac, but
we’re passing it on for what
it’s worth. We know there
are some Mac users among
our readership. Quite a few,
actually.
The product is called
Delicious Monster, for
somewhat mystical reasons,
and it’s a library/inventory
CHOOSING
system
designed
for books,
movies,
music,
software,
toys, tools,
electronics
and video
games.
If the
item in
question
has a
Universal
Product
Code, you
just point
it at your
Webcam. Or if you have a lot Chris Reimer is co-founder,
of stuff in a lot of different principle-knowledge
places, you can use a wireless management, editor in chief
barcode scanner instead. and writer for the company
Once Monster recognizes newsletter and guru at
the UPC, it finds the Knowledge Street a consultancy
appropriate image on the in Morristown, N.J., U.S.
Web, downloads other Previously he held an internal
pertinent information and KM and communications
displays the results on position at Fujitsu Consulting,
photorealistic shelves. the international consulting
You can also enter items arm of the Fujitsu Group.
by hand, so it could be used to Knowledge Street Web site:
catalog pretty much anything. www.knowledgestreet.com
There are also hooks that
track the current value of
what you own, and ways to
manage the lending of your
stuff to family and friends
(with a calendar function to
remind you when things are
due back).
If you just want to be
more organized, it’s a cool
tool, although this kind
of inventory can be very
handy if you need to file an
insurance claim.
As far the underlying
data, you can print it, export
it or sync it to your iPhone.
What more could anyone ask?
Besides a Windows version.
SMART PEOPLE 15
CHOOSING
To err is human.
To make a mistake is a different matter.
A principle in knowledge management holds that people should be encouraged
to risk making mistakes in order to foster innovation. But when is a misstep a
forgivable error and when is it a stupid mistake?
By Julia M. Rahn
A debate exists as to
whether making an error
is the same or different as
making a mistake.
In baseball, an error is
the act of a fielder misplaying
a ball in a way that allows a
batter or base runner to reach
one or more additional bases,
particularly when such an
advance should have been
prevented given ordinary
effort by the fielder.
The fielder made an error.
He misjudged the speed,
direction or height of the ball
coming at him.
While errors are tabulated
at every game, some
legendary mistakes show a
profound difference between
errors and mistakes.
For example: Pete Rose
will never be in the Baseball
Hall of Fame even though he
was considered one of the best
players in baseball history.
Rose was found to have
bet on baseball while he
managed the Cincinnati Reds.
This mistake led to him being
banned from professional
baseball and his legacy as
a truly great player forever
tarnished.  trouble and hardship in the
16 SMART PEOPLE
Using these two baseball
examples, there is a distinct
difference between making an
error and making a mistake.
An error is made when
a person’s perception,
judgment, skill acquisition
and development is at fault.
A mistake, however, happens
when a person acting out a
particular behavior knows that
the action is illegal, unhealthy,
and is related to other negative
consequences.
If you are truly playing
your best game whether it be
on the field, in the boardroom,
or selling on the street, and
an error occurs causing you
to lose the ball, a contract, or a
sale, you can re-evaluate your
position and see what you
could have improved upon to
reach your goal.
On the other hand, if you
are consciously trying to “get
ahead” by fudging numbers
and lying or relying on
altered states of consciousness
(intoxication for example)
to get by, these mistakes
will result in very negative
consequences.
While lying and cheating
are certainly mistakes that get
individuals into significant
workplace, there are smaller
mistakes people make daily
at the office that are just as
disastrous.  of making these errors again.
Some common mistakes at
the office:
n Procrastinating
n Having “just one
more” cocktail at
Friday’s happy hour
n Dealing with your
anger passive-
aggressively
n Eating three cookies
instead of one
n Padding the expense
account (also illegal)
Errors, on the other hand,
have to do with human
judgment and perception.
When one makes an error,
he or she does not believe
or know at the time that the
action in question will end
with negative results.
A baseball outfielder
certainly doesn’t know he is
going to miss the ball; in fact
he most likely believes he will
make the catch and throw a
runner off base.
Business owners and
managers are not making
a mistake when they hire
someone after an interview
who does not work out.
Staff members are not
making a mistake when they
wrongly estimate how long
a job takes and the results
add to the cost of a project.
These examples are all errors.
Everyone makes errors.
The bright side is that
everyone can learn from their
errors to decrease the chance
 
Learned lessons are the
antidote to making new errors

while a mistake, especially
when you are conscious of
making the mistake, is just a
mistake and all consequences
are a personal responsibility
and liability.    many interviews until their
A problem exists that
many people lump errors and
mistakes in the same pile. If
they make an error they either
blame themselves, others or
try to deny that it happened.
When this is done, no new
learning occurs and the
chance of making the same
error increases. In fact, denial
and blame lead to increased
feelings of shame, anger and
anxiety.
These negative feelings are
the exact emotions that impair
our judgment and perceptions
which in turn increase the
likelihood of future errors!
Furthermore, it is believed that
people make mistakes as a
way to cover up these negative
feelings, just adding to the
original problem  know that an error
The best way to handle
making an error is to first
remember to breathe once an
error has been found.  teams still win
You need all of your
resources possible to figure
out what happened, create a
new plan of action. Sufficient
amount of oxygen to your
brain will greatly support
your efforts.
Next, you need to reflect
on what happened.  Just
look at the facts, no blame or
shame needed. Decide where
the error occurred and then
devise a plan of action that will
rectify the situation, and help
prevent such an error in the
future.
You also must remember
that an error may have
occurred because you were
playing in new territories. A
CHOOSING
new salesperson for example, Julia M. Rahn, PhD, is a
will have to learn many new clinical psychologist and
skills to be successful at sales. founder of Flourish Studios®
A human resource – a multi-faceted learning
employee will have to conduct center.  In addition to running
Flourish Studios® and working
perception and the process individually as a therapist with
results in few errors. Thus, help her clients, she is a speaker
is needed when errors are the and consultant.  To find out
result of insufficient knowledge more about Dr. Julia and
and skill development. Flourish Studios®, visit www.
Luckily, there are plenty icanflourish.com
of instructors, mentors and
fellow colleagues
with whom to
consult to develop
a new plan.  But in
the end, the new
plan will require
practice to improve
your skills. Practice
doesn’t make perfect
but it sure helps in
developing new
skills.
No one likes
to make errors but
isn’t it reassuring to
is not the end of
the world? 
Baseball
World Series,
businesses
continue to
generate a
profit, and
relationships
stay intact
even when
errors
have been
made.
Errors
remind
us
that we are
human beings who have the
opportunity to improve our
skills, increase of profits, and
enjoy life to the fullest as we
continue to live and learn. 
SMART PEOPLE 17
CHOOSING
In-your-face dressing means trouble
By Sandy Dumont Such arrogance foretold
of mass bankruptcies in later
The dot-com years.
revolution brought Nevertheless, money
with it a new dress talked, and the fashion
code as young victims listened and
followed. Casual Friday
became de rigueur, even
in the most conservative
establishments. Once-formal
bankers, investment brokers
millionaires and lawyers now loosened up
with more money on Fridays.
than style decreed suits In time, it became a bother
were dead and ties were an to dress formally. “Business
abomination. casual” and “corporate casual”
It was the birth were born.
of “in-your-face” The recent successor to
dressing that business casual is the “in-your-
decreed, “I make face” dressing that announces,
so much money “I’m so hip and with-it that I
I don’t have don’t have to wear a boring
to dress to business suit or a tie.”
impress These professionals are
anyone.” commonly seen in a black silk
Armani T-shirt and expensive
sport jacket. For women, the
look consists of suggestive
attire, chandelier earrings and
too much makeup.
There are problems other
than the “in-your-face”
message that this look sends.
For one thing, it easily
creates the impression that
you are “slick,” and maybe
headed for Las Vegas instead
of the boardroom.
Some females have
even observed that this
look can sometimes give
the impression of a man
being a womanizer. In either
case, credibility goes down
dramatically.
And if you have a slim
build, something else
happens. Normally when a
sport jacket is worn with a
18 SMART PEOPLE
shirt and a tie, these garments
fill out the neck area of the
jacket so that it doesn’t pull
away from the shirt at the neck
– a real “no-no” if you want to
look polished and professional.
However, with a thin T-shirt,
very often the jacket may not
fit snugly at the neck, causing
the neck to look frail or weak. 
Other “in-your-face” looks
include inappropriate ties that
suggest, “I’m so successful
that I can wear Mickey
Mouse or baby pink ties to
the boardroom.” Or, women
who refuse to wear makeup or
proper business attire to the
office.
Beware of this stance.
Menswear designer Joseph
Abboud recently booted two
investment bankers out of his
New York office because they
were not wearing ties. Abboud
said, “They blew it because
they offended me by being too
casual.”
Ultimately, casual attire
suggests a casual attitude.
However, “in-your-face” attire
suggests a smug attitude,
which most people resent.
When a person of the
stature and power of Donald
Trump takes an “in-your-face”
stance and wears a pink tie
in New York City, it sends the
false signal that such a tie must
be a Power Tie. It is not – not
even in Palm Beach or other
cities in the Deep South, where
pastel ties are popular and
accepted.
Pastel ties are for the
country club or dining out
with friends. In real “power”
situations, they cause a man to
look less powerful. Of course,

powerful men often live by the
credo, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
In other words, for them,
power trumps decorum.
Unfortunately, “copycats” of
this “in-your-face” dressing
who do not live in the Deep
South risk having their
credibility decreased.  your-face to think that your
True professionals know
instinctively that in order to
be taken seriously, a serious
appearance is required. They
dress to impress, even though
this attitude may be more
subliminal than conscious.
Most people make an effort
when calling on an important
client because they know it
affects the outcome. Their
attitude is positive, and their
appearance should also be
positive. In-your-face attire is
smug or arrogant.
We had a brief foray into
“madness” with the dot-com
revolution, and during that
time “monsters” were created
in the working environment.
Outraged employees
protest today that they don’t
want to return to formal
business attire. They love
corporate casual and simply
do not want to be bothered
with dressing up again.
It is still arrogant and in-
comfort is more important
than your client’s attitude
toward you.
Young “GenY” female
employees wonder why they
are not permitted to wear
their suggestive club attire to
the office.
Satin and lacy stretch
camisoles fall into an entirely
different category than in-
your-face attire. Pop stars
spawned this look, and what
young business professionals
forget is that they are not pop
stars.
They are business
professionals who must
represent their company in a
business-like manner. As one
CHOOSING
male executive responded,
“We don’t sell that.”
A recent university study
concluded that females who
wear suggestive attire to the
office lose all credibility when
they are in management
positions.
Only females in lower
positions with little hope of
promotion were not judged
negatively in suggestive attire.
In reality, if women are
informed of the negativity of
suggestive attire and refuse to
change, it would be as in-your-
face as a baby pink Mickey
Mouse tie.
Sandy Dumont, The Image
Architect, is executive director
of the Impression Strategies
Institute and is a professional. She
conducts keynotes and breakout
workshops. Get a free book and
five-part Image Course at
www.TheimageArchitect.com.

Consumer innovators similar worldwide

 
As the world marketplace expands, a new study shows how marketers can more shrewdly channel their resources to target
“consumer innovators,” people who are the most likely to adopt a new technology or manufactured good, when launching
a product worldwide.
It turns out these consumer innovators have a lot in common, despite their cultural differences.
“Global Consumer Innovativeness: Cross-Country Differences and Demographic Commonalities” was led by Gerard
Tellis, director of the Center for Global Innovation and a marketing professor at the USC Marshall School of Business who
collaborated with co-authors Eden Yin (University of Cambridge) and Simon Bell (University of Melbourne).
Among the study’s findings:
n In assessing an individual’s propensity to try new products, demographic predictors (age, wealth, education and
mobility) were common, despite strong cultural differences.
n Certain demographics predict consumer innovativeness in certain categories. For example, younger consumers (ages
20-29) are more eager to buy automobiles than other age groups.
n Consumer eagerness for new products varies substantially by product category and country. For example, the countries
most eager to try new food products are Sweden and Canada while India, Korea, China and Brazil are less eager.
n Brazilians are most eager to buy cosmetics, while Japanese are most eager to buy electronic products.

To read the complete study, visit http://www.gtellis.net/Publications.aspx

SMART PEOPLE 19
CREATING
Part 1: Free ‘intraprise’
CREATING Fruitful opportunities for smart people inside firm
This series provides more than talk. Note the number of highlighted company names
representing known cases.
By Gifford and
Elizabeth Pinchot
One characteristic of the
entrepreneurial organization
is that it successfully
implements enough creative
ideas to make a surplus of
fruitful opportunities for all its
people.
For example, one of
the U.S.’s most successful
furniture companies,
Herman Miller, which is
full of innovating teams, has
grown and avoided almost all
downsizing despite frequently
changing market conditions.
In this day and age it
takes a pretty steady stream
of innovation and continuous
improvement for any
organization just to stay in
place.
20 SMART PEOPLE
To get ahead, both
individuals and organizations
need to anticipate and direct
change, and learn from it.
This requires that the
people doing the work take
responsibility for improving
it, using all the information
and experience they can
muster.
Many organizations
big and small are still able
to generate enough new
products and services to
create new jobs – at least
as fast as the old ones
are destroyed through
automation and obsolescence.
3M’s internal entrepreneurs
or “intrapreneurs” generate
so many new products that
30 percent of their sales are
new within the last five years.
3M now has 60,000 products
and they keep
growing.
Innovation
isn’t just a
matter of
creativity,
because
in any
company
people know
far more
about how
to make
things better
than we see
implemented.
Innovation
depends
on people who approach
their work like an
owner/entrepreneur,
even if employed in a big
organization, to turn more of
the good ideas into realities.
Without a wide
distribution of entrepreneurial
energy, without many people
in many different teams
figuring out a piece of the
larger dream and making it
happen, corporations get stuck
in old ways, age and die.
Oticon, the highly
successful Danish hearing aid
manufacturer, was aging and
dying when the company was
turned upside down, and the
employee choices became the
new management structure.
Now employees volunteer
for tasks and projects all over
the company, sometimes
working from several teams
and learning many skills that
add up to whole-business
effectiveness.
They have dissolved
bureaucracy by establishing
a voluntary network within
the organization based on
the internal market choices
of people and teams. And
since becoming more
entrepreneurial the company’s
profits have grown six fold in
two years.
It normally takes a
North American automobile
company five or more years to
develop a new car.
The Chrysler Neon
team did it in just 31
months. The secret was a
highly entrepreneurial new
product team, comprised of
people from all the different

functional areas of the
organization, empowered to
make most of the decisions
themselves.
However, the bulk
of the teams in any large
organization are not directly
creating a new product for
customers; they are providing
services to others within the
organization who use those
services to provide what the
final customer wants.
Teams provide accounting,
market analysis, product
design, information
technology, maintenance,
telephones, components,
transportation, raw materials
and so forth.
The effectiveness of these
services determines the
overall effectiveness of the
organization.
How do you keep teams
with internal customers from
wasting the organization’s
resources? Hierarchical control
isn’t subtle enough. A strongly
free internal market can
discipline a network of teams
without relying on hierarchical
control.
At AT&T, PR functions
were traditionally delivered
either by a dedicated PR staff
within a division or provided
by the corporate PR group.
Then Jerry Santos
experimented with user choice.
A small group called PR
Creative Services was set up
and allowed to sell its service
in competition with the main
corporate PR function. Their
internal customers only pay
when they use the service.
The pressure of having
to sell their services rapidly
lead to a “can do” attitude and
the group motto, “What the
customer wants when they
want it.”
Setting themselves up as
an internal business rather
than a traditional staff group
has so sharpened their ideas
of service that the group is
growing at a time when many in four hours than I do during
staff activities in AT&T are
downsizing. Marilyn Laurie,
AT&T senior vice president of
public relations says:
“Despite unrelenting
cost cutting throughout our
business, Creative Services
has kept a healthy balance
sheet and has grown to meet
demand. We’re applying
the lessons we learned
through Creative
Services to the way we
manage and evaluate
is almost always a symptom of an earlier
work throughout AT&T
public relations.”
When your customer
has the choice whether to
use your services or not they
get even more attention than
the boss, because in the long
run what the boss thinks will
be determined by whether or
not your customers use your
services.
The key to making an
organization externally
focused is to provide internal
choice so those groups
serving customers can get
what they need to do it well.
Bureaucratic management innovation management.
evolved so the few could
direct the work of many,
with rules and practices to
reduce rather than increase
the initiative and creativity of
the majority. A tale we have
heard in a seemingly well-
managed corporations that is
not unusual:
“When I come to work in
the morning, I take off my
brain, hang it on that hook
over there and put on my
hard hat. When I leave at
night my brain goes back on
CREATING
and my hard hat hangs on the
hook. At night I am running
an entrepreneurial garbage
collection business. I’m
already making more at night
the day in eight. My boss
will be so surprised when I
tell him why I am quitting,
because he hasn’t even
noticed that I have a brain. In
fact, he wouldn’t know a good
idea or employee initiative if it
walked up and bit him.”
The most powerful single
tool for replacing bureaucracy
The need to get rid of good employees
failure to nurture the entrepreneurial
teamwork within the organization.
with entrepreneurship
is the discipline of a free
market system. Markets tend
to coordinate work more
effectively and distribute
responsibility more widely.
Read Part II in the coming
November issue.
Gifford Pinchot is co-
founder, Pinchot & Company,
Washington State, US; author,
speaker and consultant on
His best-selling book,
Intrapreneuring: Why You
Don’t Have to Leave the
Corporation to Become
an Entrepreneur defined
the ground rules for an
emerging field of enterprise: the
courageous pursuit of new ideas
in established organizations.
Elizabeth Pinchot, co-founder, is
an executive coach, consultant
and author, with 30 years of
experience coaching hundreds of
intrapreneurs. Web site: http://
www.pinchot.com
SMART PEOPLE 21
CREATING

Basketball star says trust teammates

A view of collaboration from a 7’4” pro
By Mark Eaton trust among team members. they stay under the radar
After all, if you know no one is and do just enough to not
Trust is essential in backing your ideas, why try to get fired. They become clock-
today’s business world. Every implement them? The chance watchers who only care about
day people talk about how of failing is too great. themselves and their own
important trust is, yet few The world of professional agenda.
know how to create it. basketball offers the perfect As a result, you have
Trust comes when learning example: In a company filled with
people know they can count basketball, one person’s job is people who know only how
on you. Trust comes when to guard the basket. to complain and whine
people know you’re there for As long as that person is rather than take action and
them. When people protect doing his job, his teammates responsibility.
each other, there is trust up the court can take risks and Now you no longer
– it’s that simple When you’re try to steal the ball from the have a team; you only have
committed to others and their other team. divisiveness. 
well-being, you can expect an If they’re unsuccessful
extraordinary commitment in with the steal and the n If you’re an employee,
return encourage fellow employees to
competition happens to get by
In the NBA, basketball step out and take risks. What
them, they can count on the
players follow the concept would it be like if everyone on
person guarding
of “sticking together.” your team truly felt safe?
the basket to
They know by If you want to be
protect the
protecting each invaluable, be the person
team and
other, working people can count on. If
keep the
collaboratively you want to have enduring
rival
and standing relationships, look out for
from
united others. Put others first.
scoring.
against the When you protect others,
If
competition, they take risks. They know
the team
their chances they won’t be criticized should
members
of winning they fail.
can’t count
greatly increase. When you protect others,
on each other,
In business, the only you create an environment
they’re not
way you can do your job of safety and freedom. That’s
going to take risks.
effectively, be creative and be what supports innovation
They’re going to play it
innovative is when you know safe. They’ll stay in front of and the immediate response
that someone “has your back.” their man, do their best to not required in a world and
market characterized by
When you’re confident let him score, and stay in a incessant change.
someone is watching out defensive mode rather than When you protect others
for you, you’re more willing taking an offensive position you sometimes give up an
to take risks to increase the and going for the score. opportunity or put yourself
bottom line. Unfortunately, in Same at work. People may on the line. But when you do
most companies, people are have some good ideas, but that, you show people you
just there to collect a paycheck. they don’t voice them because
care.
There’s no creativity, no they don’t feel protected.
innovation and no risk-taking, They don’t feel that sense n If you’re in management,
all because there’s no sense of of trust or appreciation, so become a protector. Encourage

22 SMART PEOPLE

your people to come to you
with ideas.
When you decide to
implement one of the ideas,
let your employees know you
completely support them.
Win or lose, you’re there for
them.
If you must, think of your
employees as your children.
As a parent, your first
priority is protecting your
young. Just like children,
adults do their best when
they feel cared for and safe.
So if you want peak
performers, create an
environment where everyone
feels safe. The ideal manager
is like the coach who stands
up for his team.
The ideal manager who
creates an atmosphere of
trust is really creating a space
where people will exceed
expectations.
n Observe how behavior changes
in the workplace with the
implementation of this concept.
One glimpse of trust starts
a wellspring of performance
and confidence.
Think about it . . . if your
supervisor said to you, “That’s
a great idea. Take this project
on. You have my complete
support,” how would you feel?
You’d probably feel a sense
of shock, and then a sense of
eager anticipation.
You’d be excited and
quick to tell others on your
team what just happened.
Then your co-workers would
think, “Wow. I have an idea,
too. I want to talk to the boss
about it.”
So one simple gesture
of trust can create a sense of
energy and enthusiasm in
the workplace, which is really
what everyone wants.
The more management
communicates with the
staff that they’re creating an
environment of trust, the
more ideas and innovation
that people will bring to the
table.
n The keys to performance and
success: Trust and loyalty are
what distinguishes a team from
a group. They’re what make
relationships irreplaceable
and irresistible, and people
invaluable.
When you fight for
another person and transcend
your self-interest, you change
the world.
Trust comes when people
know they can count on you
. . . that you’re there for them
no matter what. When people
protect each other, trust is
inevitable.
It’s that simple. When
you commit to protecting
others, you can expect an
extraordinary commitment in
return.
Trust sets people on fire.
When you defend another,
CREATING
you find courage that you
didn’t know you had.
Fighting for someone else and
doing more for others than
you do for yourself brings
out the best in yourself. And
that’s where you find the
win. It’s called the magic of
teamwork.
Mark Eaton is a speaker
and coach who works with
organizations and individuals
sharing the commitments
that bring about teamwork,
breakthrough success and
sustained cultural change.
Mark’s inspiring journey from
auto mechanic to record-breaking
NBA basketball player, combined
with his practical strategies and
principles, help organizations
play and win in the biggest
game out there. You Tube: http://
tinyurl.com/ybfwpqz; contact:
info@7ft4.com
SMART PEOPLE 23
WORKING
WORKING Part III: Saving the company
How ordinary smart people will change the organization
This concludes a three-part series on the failures of many organizations to recognize and
capitalize on the value of human knowledge. Where those companies still don’t “get it,” the
future is in the hands of ordinary smart people.
By Dave Pollard
I have written before
about what I call Personal
Knowledge Management
(PKM), which is an attempt
to enable workers to do this
more effectively.
My problem has been that
PKM is impossible to sell to
senior management, because
they perceive no value to
themselves.
I toyed with the idea of
trying to sell it to front-line
workers directly, perhaps by
starting a magazine called
Working Smarter.
The problem with this
is that everyone is at a
different stage in evolution
toward PKM, and there
are no standard answers
or approaches — we each
have to muddle this through
for ourselves, based on our
own “knowledge set” and
information behaviors.
But perhaps if we outlined
a future scenario of where
this PKM trend is headed,
we might be able to evolve
an approach that would
accommodate the needs of
both individual workers
and the organizations
struggling to cope with this
phenomenon.
To this end, let me start
with a story of a young
business analyst named Jon.
24 SMART PEOPLE
A composite
workaround story
Jon spent the first week
in his new job with Giant
Co. trying to port all the
information, contacts,
subscriptions and software
tools he had been using in his
three previous jobs to his new
company-supplied computer.
He was stymied at every
turn. He was not allowed
to put the tools he was
familiar with onto his new
computer because they were
“not supported” by his new
employer.
He was blocked by the
security firewall from using
Webmail in the office (“we
consider this to be something
employees would only use
for personal non-business
purposes”), even though all
his business contacts and
subscriptions were on it.
He was blocked from
accessing YouTube (where
many of the videos he had
prepared for his previous
employers, and some
educational videos he referred
to regularly, were stored).
He was blocked from
using IM and Skype, so he was
cut off from his global network
of experts and colleagues who
used IM and Skype exclusively
for instant, free knowledge
sharing, advice and quick
lookups of useful research
materials.
He was blocked from
using Vyew, so instead of
being able to call people
outside the office for quick,
free conferences with screen-
sharing, he had to use the
company’s expensive pay-
per-use audio conferencing
system (and everyone on the
call had to be pre-authorized),
and send a huge deck of
screen captures by email to
participants in advance.
He wasn’t permitted to
work from home. When he
worked on weekends from
home, his Web access to
his work email didn’t work
properly, and because his co-
workers didn’t use it, he was
told it would be months before
they would start trying to fix
the problems with it.
After a long delay, he
was approved for VPN, but
only on his work computer,
so he began lugging it home
every day, only to discover
that it degraded performance
so much that even accessing
email with it was agonizingly
slow.
His boss dropped into
Jon’s cubicle about six weeks
after he had started work,
and found Jon working
away happily. But to the
boss’ surprise, Jon had two
computers sitting side-by-side
on his desk.
Jon explained that his
work computer was connected

to the organization’s network,
and he used it only to access
messages and documents
behind the firewall, which Jon
would immediately forward
to his personal email account,
or (using a USB drive) quickly
transfer over to his own
machine.
All work was done on
Jon’s own machine, which was
connected to the Internet (and
all Jon’s contacts, subscriptions
and documents) by a wireless
connection that Jon paid for
personally.
Because all Jon’s outgoing
emails came from his own
machine, 90 percent of the
email he was receiving from
fellow employees was now
being sent to his personal
email address (most people
didn’t notice or care that Jon’s
‘reply to’ email address on his
messages wasn’t his company
email address).
Ten of his co-workers at
the company had followed
his two-computer example,
and were using IM rather
than email for their
communications. The boss
asked whether it didn’t take a
lot of time to transfer between
the two machines, and Jon
replied “Less and less all the
time.”
Jon’s boss left the office
unsure whether to praise
Jon for his innovative
workaround, or report him
to IT to make sure Jon wasn’t
exposing the company to
security risks.
This is a composite of a
number of real cases of young
people working around
dysfunctional information
systems I have witnessed in
the last two years. I expect it’s
WORKING
going to become more and work applications. Almost
more common. all information is Web-
Let’s suppose that, in based, with organizations’
20 years, Jon’s information proprietary information
behavior becomes the norm. only accessible through
Eventually organizations authorization software.
will have to face the problem, Email has disappeared,
and end the guerilla war replaced by a virtual
that is brewing between the presence application
IT security people and Gen that includes instant
Y in a growing number of messaging, screensharing,
companies and institutions. voice/videoconferencing,
I think it is unlikely that filesharing, calendaring,
most will be able to resolve tasklists.
the perceived security threats Employees maintain a
in such a way that they could “Company Sector” on their
allow the Jons of the world to machines in which they
do what they want inside the put information that can
firewall. be accessed 24/7 by other
What is more likely is that, employees.
just like the calculator and Most people also maintain
telephone, the laptop (soon a “Public Sector” on their
to become even smaller and machines in which they
more powerful) will evolve put information that can be
to be a ubiquitous personal accessed 24/7 or subscribed
device that people will carry to by anyone in the world
with them everywhere. (this has replaced blogs and
At that point having
NEXT PAGE
redundant computers (and
phones) on everyone’s desk
will become absurd, and IT
security can start to focus on
protecting confidential data
from being accessed, rather
than trying to lock down
employees’ appliances.
At that point, the role
of the rest of IT,
and KM, will
have to change
completely.
Here’s a
scenario of how
I think it might look:
OrgInfoFlows2
Major information flows in
organizations, c. 2025?
In 2025, every
individual in every
organization uses his or
her own personal computer
for both personal and
SMART PEOPLE 25
WORKING
How ordinary smart people will change the organization
CONTINUED
applications like Facebook),
and Community Sectors in
which they put information
that can be accessed 24/7
by other members of that
Community.
Dave Pollard
The aggregation of the
is former chief
Company Sectors of all
knowledge
employees of an organization
officer of Ernst &
replaces the corporate Intranet
Young, coaches
of past generations; it can be
entrepreneurs
viewed by anyone in that
and writes “How
organization.
to Save the
The aggregation of the
World” which
Community Sectors of all
ranks high on
members of a particular
the blog lists in
community replaces the
Canada – http://
community tools (forums,
blogs.salon.
wikis, etc.) of past generations;
com/0002007
it can be viewed by anyone in
that community.
The IT department is still
responsible for maintaining
security around the
organization’s proprietary
information, but very little
content is left in this category.
IT also checks that the
information in employees
machines’ Company Sectors is
appropriate for sharing, and
auto-replicating properly.
The KM department still
manages the purchase of
external information, though
almost all information in
2025 is free; information
producers have realized that
their business model is to
apply that information to
specific customers’ business
environment, in consulting
assignments, rather than
trying to sell publications.
Most of the mainstream
media were nationalized after
they went bankrupt using
their traditional business
models, and now operate as
public services.
26 SMART PEOPLE
Most of what the KM
department does now is
trying to facilitate more
effective conversations
among people within the
organization and with people
outside the organization,
including customers.
Publisher’s note: Thus
ends a realistic view of the
current and future work
culture based on social,
political and economic
trends. If 2025 ends up as
Dave Pollard envisions it,
the impetus will be a natural
adaptation to a changing
human environment and
driven by a some pioneering
organizations and a bounty
of smart people, not the
least of which are the digital
natives described in this
issue’s Manifesto (pg. 6).
Dave Pollard was dis-
couraged by the idea of a
magazine to help people
understand the promise of
personal knowledge man-
agement. Those of us who
have launched Smart Peo-
ple Magazine are, perhaps,
a bit more reckless. But
then our scars in the battle
of Knowledge Management
aren’t quite as deep.
They facilitate many
meetings that use the
virtual presence application,
especially those that involve
more than five people.
That facilitation includes
organizing the meeting,
distributing advance
materials, facilitating the
discussion (conflict resolution,
staying on schedule, etc.), and
even recording, editing and
publishing the meeting as
appropriate.
They run courses in
effective conversation,
meeting and presentation
skills.
In addition, the KM
department conducts
environmental scans and
conducts research in areas the
organization wants to focus
on, and publishes and runs
short video presentations on
the results.
They also browse the
content of the aggregate
of the Company Sectors
of all employees of the
organization, notifying
managers and employees of
content that may be worthy
of follow-up, and they assist
employees to manage their
subscriptions to people’s
Public Sector content.
And, when the
organization holds sessions
and conferences on strategy,
risk, innovation or customer
relationships, the KM
department is on hand to
do advance and just-in-time
research.

Egomania
Rid yourself of analysis paralysis
By Theresa Rose
Have you ever found yourself
endlessly obsessing over an
issue, unable to move beyond
it?
When dealing with
a problem or potential
opportunity, do you ever
have dozens of seemingly
unanswerable questions
swirling around your brain?
If so, you may be suffering
from one of the most common
afflictions known to the
modern worker: analysis
paralysis.
At some point we have
all found ourselves in the
crushing grip of this dreaded
condition where we simply
can’t make a decision no
matter how much we want to
get to the end zone.
We convince ourselves
that we don’t have all the
facts, the timing isn’t quite
right, something bad will
happen if we take action, or
we just haven’t conjured up
the right solution yet.
These feelings of
unreadiness and unsteadiness
cause us to squander precious
time and lose our peace of
mind. What is the root cause
of this all-too-prevalent
mental malaise? It is our own
egos.
The ego convinces us
that we haven’t done enough
legwork because of one
reason: it doesn’t like the
unknown.
Imagine your ego as a
person who is deathly afraid
of heights. It would rather
remain firmly, safely planted
on the ground instead of
jumping out of an airplane
to experience a thrilling
skydive. When you are about
to embark on something new,
your ego senses that change is
imminent; it’s in a panic, your
ego will betray you if you
allow it. It will plant all sorts
of ridiculous scenarios in your
head in order to keep you
from acting.
In your quiet moments, it
will whisper in your ear that
you will lose your job, home,
family and livelihood if you
make the “wrong” decision.
Its most fervent desire is to
have you frozen in fear until
the wonderful opportunity
– whether it is that completed
project, the fantastic
promotion, your big move, or
the new job – passes you by.
Even though the
ego is a formidable
foe, it is not
infallible.
Here are a
few steps
to help you
move off
dead center
and back into action:
n Set the timer
Give yourself a defined
period of time to finish the
process of data gathering.
Chances are you probably
already know everything you
need to know.
If you like, you can bop
around in your cerebral spin
cycle for a few more days
and pick up those last bits
of information. However, it
is important to accept the
WORKING
fact that there will always be
unknown factors; you will
never have all of the data
about a particular subject.
When you come to terms with
the inevitable unknown, you
can then make a decision
based on what you know
today.
n Listen to your gut
What does your instinct
tell you to do? What
option brings you the most
satisfaction and joy? What
feels right? When your fear is
no longer driving the decision-
making process, you can trust
the guidance you receive from
your intuition. It is the most
talented business analyst
you’ll ever have at
your disposal.
n Ask for a second opinion
Now that you have an
idea about what you want to
do, run your arguments past
an impartial judge such as a
trusted friend or colleague.
Make sure you don’t choose
NEXT PAGE
SMART PEOPLE 27
WORKING

Rid yourself of analysis paralysis

CONTINUED n Do a mental dry run. Rest assured that you will
Once you’ve decided on hear the nagging voice of your
someone who is vested in a which path to take, begin own second-guessing ringing
particular outcome or who the journey in your mind in your ears. Expect it.
will tell you only what you first. Mentally play out your It is nothing more than
want to hear. decision exactly as you wish it your ego’s final ‘Hail Mary’
Present your cases as to be. attempt to keep you locked in
if you are in front of the Fill in all of the details of a state of inertia.
Supreme Court; make them the outcome, including your All great leaders hear that
clear, succinct and convincing. feelings, the environment, same nagging voice, yet they
Encourage your friend the reactions of others, the choose to act anyway. You can
to ask you questions in financial benefit, and any other do it, too.
order to solidify his or her positive result stemming from The most important step to
understanding. your decision. bust through analysis paralysis
When you are finished, Mentally replay this is to adopt a trusting, Zen-like
ask for feedback on your imaginary outcome until attitude. Remind yourself that
arguments, both on content you feel utterly confident in whatever happens is supposed
and delivery. moving forward. to happen.
Where in your There are no mistakes,
presentation did you have n Take the leap. wrong turns or missed
the most energy? Confidence Make a commitment to act opportunities. If you
and enthusiasm are always by a certain date and follow remember that, in the larger
good indicators of the most through on your commitment context, everything occurs
appropriate solution. without hesitation. exactly as it should, you can
cut yourself some slack.
Any outcome is far
Sneaky vacations preferable to the physical,
mental, and emotional price
Without letting your boss, company, clients know you pay when perpetually
brewing in fear, doubt, and
By Bridget Ayers uncertainty. Isn’t it time to take
off those cement boots and
All of us with office jobs dream of vacations to sunny beaches and happy climes. Sipping take the leap?
from a drink with an umbrella in it and lounging in a beach chair.
Well, you don’t have to limit yourself to one getaway a year. If you’re mobile, you can Theresa Rose is an inspirational
pull off an extra, sneaky, just-between-you-and-me vacation. speaker and author of the new
All you need is the right equipment and a little planning. If you travel at all, you’ve book, Opening the Kimono. As
probably got most of this: a laptop/notebook computer, Internet access, smart phone or founder of Serious Mojo
iPhone and some kind of dedicated phone number. Publications, she specializes
The laptop/notebook and Internet access is fairly obvious. Most hotels now include in fresh approaches to energy
high speed Internet and many beach venues project their WiFi out to the water. management, productivity and
The smart phone or iPhone is also important because you’ll want to link it to your email creative development.  Her
address and/or any company-used chat services like Skype. experience includes owning a
If you have a dedicated phone number you can probably forward the number to your healing center, senior manager
cell. of a Fortune 100 firm, and vice
Finally, don’t forget the sunblock. Getting a tan will give you away for sure! president of a consulting firm.
Visit www.TheresaRose.net.
Bridget Ayers, president, GSW Consulting, marketing, San Diego
http://www.thegetsmartblog.com/

28 SMART PEOPLE
 WORKING

Do generational differences matter?

As a follow-up to the Digital Native Manifesto (page 6), this writer asks if
the generational differences matter and, if so, what do we do about it?
By Teri Aulph

I’ve been watching discussions on Twitter and other social

media sites regarding the impact of a multigenerational
workforce.
I read one tweet explaining Gen Y, Baby Boomer, Gen X
mean nothing. The exchange went on to explain the terms to
describe the various generations were created by people to
generate issues that are nonexistent.
The source of this theory stated there was no impact.
I have great appreciation and respect for all views,
whether I agree or not. I think the freedom to believe as you
choose is fundamental to who we are as individuals and
you can see evidence of this on any social media site every
minute of every day.
You will also see the passion people have to “voice,”
for lack of a better term (I prefer it to type), their thoughts, feelings and opinions. I often wonder if their need to
“voice” runs parallel with their need to be heard.
From my point of view, I think if you line up 10 employees ranging from one to three years of experience up
to 15 to 20 years of experience, you will find dramatic differences. The first that jumps out is that the lower end
(less experience) have grown up with technological advantages unknown in the formative years of those with
20+ years experience. They are adept at using technology and can leverage these talents in the workforce putting
them light-years ahead. There are those with 20+ years experience who have kept up with technology, understand
it, know how to use it and enjoy the advantages it has to offer.
But if you listen carefully among a group of employees who represent both ends of this spectrum, those with
20+ years will defer to those at the lower end for their expertise. I personally believe this is how it is supposed
to be and, if managed well, allows alliances to form as we rely on one another. The group with more experience
brings just that – more experience.
They have made more mistakes and celebrated more success, so have had the opportunity to learn and adapt.
They often have much more product knowledge, business acumen and historical data that are paramount in the
“big picture.”
The wisdom that comes from experience is impossible to duplicate without putting the time in.
This is exemplified as companies are scrambling to put Knowledge Management systems into place as we
watch the Baby Boomers begin to retire.
The impact of this generational migration could dramatically change the way we view the demographics of
our workforce and what they bring to the table.
Do yourself a favor. Accept the fact that all groups are needed and bring value.
Develop work teams with diverse experiential demographics allowing a natural transfer of knowledge.
Accept that each group feels they are the most important – probably necessary attitude for success.
Allow healthy debates on subjects from all areas and voices. At the end of the day, what rises from the debate
will, most likely, be the best of both worlds.

Teri Aulph, president, Teri Aulph Consulting, executive coach with proven success in talent management, organizational
design, change management and operational excellence. Over 10 years as a business executive with Fortune 500 companies, as
well as other companies large and small. Contact: teriaulphconsulting@me.com

SMART PEOPLE 29
KNOWLEDGE FACTOR
KM Six Pack #5
THE K FACTOR People: Managing, not hoarding, personal knowledge
This is the fifth in a series of six articles introducing newly engaged employees and managers
to the basics of knowledge-based enterprise.
By Jerry Ash
True story: A company
installed an expensive
software program to assist
call center technicians in
diagnosing and solving
problems customers were
having with their copying
machines. Trouble was,
technicians weren’t using the
software.
So, the company held
a contest that offered a
handsome bonus to the
technician who solved the
most problems over a period
of time.
Much to management’s
horror, the first place prize
went to a company maverick
named Carlos, a technician
who was always out of step
with company procedures and
didn’t use the database.
Second place went to a
new employee named Sharon
who didn’t even have the
software yet. Her secret? She
sat across from Carlos.
Knowledge is personal.
Direct management of
knowledge can only be
practiced by those who have
the knowledge – and that’s
you.
Personal knowledge
management (PKM) is nothing
new, but the way people
manage their own knowledge
is changing in a knowledge-
based society.
30 SMART PEOPLE
Carlos is a good example
of the power of personal
knowledge, and Sharon is a
good example of the power of
shared knowledge. Just as it
is imperative that companies
learn to facilitate KM, it
is critical that individuals
discover how to manage their
own knowledge better.
The concept of personal
knowledge management
(PKM) became somewhat
muddied in the beginning
when some of its advocates
described it as “personal
branding.”
Tom Peters, in his Brand
You 50 book wrote: “Forget
‘they.’ This is your life.
Period.” That was Peters’
first of 50 ways to “transform
yourself from an employee
into a brand,” implying one
should skip networking,
collaboration and company
loyalty; stick to the “WIIFM”
(what’s in it for me).
That’s the old “knowledge
is power” myth. The new
PKM is all about partnering
– with other professionals,
colleagues, customers, the
company and sometimes even
the competitor to share and to
learn.
Perhaps it should be called
interpersonal knowledge
management (IPKM).
Here are a few tips
on managing your own
knowledge:
• Think about what you
know that you’re using, not
using.
• Think about what you don’t
know and how it could
help you.
• Think about your own
interests, ones being
utilized and ones not.
• Think about strategies to
get your knowledge and
ideas connected to projects.
• Think about strategies
to add to your personal
knowledge through
networking.
• Think about how you
can get involved in
departmental or cross-
functional teams.
• Think about how you and
the company can get the
most bang for your brains.
• Think of yourself as an
entrepreneur, one among
many.
• Think of your relationship
with the company as
partner, not employee.
• And if you are Carlos
or Sharon, think about
becoming an adviser to
management, providing a
responsible critique of the
software and why people
don’t use it.
See Six Pack #1 through
4 in the May through
September issues [www.
smartpeoplemagazine.com].
The series will be completed
in the November issue –
Networks: Sharing, learning,
discovering together.
 Economic crunch
affecting your people?
Is doing more with less
stressing them out?
Do something for them
and the company.
Co-brand Smart People magazine
and make it available to everyone –
employees, suppliers, even customers.
It’s one cool tool that reaches out
to the digitally connected
to transfer their passions for social
networking, online learning and
research from the outside-in.
Results: Less stress.
Happier, more creative
and collaborative workers.
And higher productivity
to offset the lean years.

for
everyone
Contact Smart People publisher, Jerry Ash
smart.guy1@smartpeoplemagazine.com
for details. Or call him: 813.335.1355
 If you believe in Smart People, raise your hand!
The people behind this magazine are the vanguard of a volunteer
community intent on helping people leverage the knowledge
and networking power of the Internet to make living, learning, choosing,
creating and working better for all of us. It is an enormous task
we undertake and we need you.
Marketing professionals • Social
networkers • Community leaders •
Prosumers • Writers • Subject
Experts • Collaborators • Partners •
Affiliates • Communicators •
Researchers • Champions •
Leaders • Activists •
– and just plain ordinary smart people

Contact Jerry Ash, Volunteer #1

smart.guy1@smartpeoplemagazine.com

P.S. As in all sharing, you will get more

than you give by being a part of this grand
project – if you value the learning, growing
and experience to be gained here.