Malcom Gladwell develops complex concepts within his simple and clear stories. This is the second book I’ve read from Gladwell, and it was a good read. The Tipping Point discussed three characteristics that cause epidemics: contagiousness/stickiness, how little causes have big effects, and how change happens in one dramatic moment. And this is the the tipping point.

Law of the Few
Within the spread of viral, social epidemics, the 80/20 rule grows to an even smaller fraction. Only select people initiate and spread epidemics. For example, a handful of sexual deviants who go home with someone new nightly spread disease among many people. On the social side, people with many connections can help generate buzz around a product.

Gladwell broke these people into three types:

Connectors: These are the people that seem to have connections with everyone. There was an experiment that asked people from Omaha to send a postal mail as close as they could to an address in Boston. If people didn’t know anyone from that address, they’d send to the closest nearby (e.g. their aunt in Connecticut). They found that the mail took about five or six sends to get to the specific address (Six degrees of Kevin Bacon). Connectors bring our world together. They are people who like people, and they have many diverse groups that they are part of. Connectors connect our world with other people.

Mavens: Mavens are people who accumulate knowledge. They care deeply about the products they invest in, and they can give you the details to a Consumer Report level. A mavens opinion is very influential. In this world of mass information, we generally will go to the mavens we know to get their opinion to ensure we are making the right decision. In marketing, we need to make sure the mavens are happy. They are the ones that dispute the finest detail, but once they’re on your side, you have a powerful tool to spread the word.

Salesman: These people have the ability to persuade. Good ones enjoy helping people. And they have quality answers to a person’s common objections. People enjoy salesman who have energy, enthusiasm, charm. It’s likability and their positive people even before speaking with them. Being positive and being confident go a long way in sales. Emotion is contagious.

Gladwell then brings up stories about the positive approach on influence. People who nod their heads in an argument will side with the person. On the other side, people who shake their heads while listening to an argument (despite their initial thoughts) will disagree. Our subliminal thought go a long way. For news anchors who favor a certain politician, this subliminal affects their views and persuades them to also like that politician. Interesting stories.

Mavens are data banks. They provide the message. Connectors are social glue. They spread it. And salesman have the ability to persuade the unconvinced.

RULE: There are exceptional people out there capable of starting epidemics.

Stickiness Factor

Disease is sticky; memorable advertising is sticky. The package must be sticky to be transferred.

Here, Gladwell uses the example of the success of Sesame Street. Reaching the audience isn’t the challenge. It’s making the content stick that’s the real challenge. Interactive is the best way. And slight changes make a big difference. Adding a campus map to get a tetanus shot greatly increased adoption. This connects the dots.

Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch greatly increases kids attention to Sesame Street. Blues Clues took the basics of Sesame Street and increased the attention span once again. This simplified the show even greater for children. It removed humor (humor is confusing for children; they stuck to one story, and kids loved it. They also didn’t have budget for many shows, so a Blues Clues’ show  had to be played for the entire week. This played well with the kids. They like watching shows over and over.

RULE: There’s a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, will make it irresistible. The content needs to be memorable and move us to action.

Power of Context

In 1968, 38 people watched from their apartment as Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death. No one called the police. When these people were interviewed to why they didn’t take action, they didn’t necessarily have an answer to why they didn’t take action. They just thought it was cold New York.   This spurred a social experiment where a person would be having an epileptic seizure. What’s interesting… is if only one person was around, they would help 85% of the time. However, if there were three other people around to help, the person only received help 31% of the time. People assume others will be taking care of this person. No one wants responsibility unless they have to take it on. Our environment guides our actions.

Broken Window Theory: Crime is the result of disorder. If a window is broken and unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares; no one is in charge. More windows will be broken and the anarchy will spread. If you fix the window, clean up the graffiti – crime can be avoided. Minor crimes tip major crimes. This theory was the start of cleaning up New York. They started with the little things: cleaning graffiti and repairing windows, and then crime started to disappear. Minor crimes lead into major crims.

Much of our environment dictates on how we act at that moment. For example, a study was done to see what factors contribute to children cheating on tests. What they found was that many variables contribute to cheating: older children cheat more than younger children, happy homes cheat less than unstable homes. And these same children when confronted with different circumstances – whether at home or at school, the complexity of the material, or the time to finish the exam- changed. No certain person or factor seemed to decide on the cheating. Rather, it was the environment that dictated this.

On top of this, a social experiment was done with students entering the ministry. The students were given the task to prepare a speech about being a good samaritan. However, once the student arrived to class, the professor would tell them they either had a few minutes to relax or that they were ten minutes late. The speech was to be given at another place nearby, and the student would briskly walk to this meeting place, but on the way, they’d run into someone needing help.

If the student was running late, they’d only help this person in need 10% of the time. However, if they had a few minutes, 63 percent stopped. Time was the deciding factor on whether or not they helped, despite being a student in the ministry and giving a speech on good samaritism.

Then we take the law of 150. In a social group, 150 generally is the max number to run this group effectively. At this number, orders can be implemented and unruly behavior controlled. In the villages of Australia to the Amish, 150 has been that magic number where if the group reaches it, the group splits to form another village. The rule of 150 is a subtle contextual factor that makes a big difference in the success or failure of a group.

RULE: The conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur have a major effect on the outcome.

Conclusion: 

“We are powerfully influenced by our surroundings, our immediate context, and the personalities that surround us.”

This book attempts to understand the external factors that grow certain epidemics. For Airwalk in the 90s, skateboarders adopted this brand because it was for them; it was a different shoe only sold for them. Then Airwalk grew in popularity and started to sell their product in malls and eventually became mainstream. Trendsetters hated this. They want to be different. And this ultimate, saw Airwalk’s loss of success. They lost their specialized shoe.

Our external environment changes our mind. In 1999, 42 children in Belgium had to be hospitalized. They reported headaches and nausea. They found that the issue came from drinking a batch of Coke. The company did its research and found that contaminated carbon dioxide had been used. What’s interesting though is that this contaminated carbon dioxide should have only imparted a bad smell; no sickness at all. It may have affected a few kids, but not 42. And some of these children didn’t even drink coke that day. Mass hysteria such as this is easily spread through children. It’s the same thing when someone says they may have eaten something bad, and you were at that same restaurant. Then you begin to play mind games with yourself. These types of factors boil into a tipping point of epidemics. Our mind them believes were sick, and the epidemic grows.

Many factors contribute to this. On game shows, contestants rate the questioners being a lot smarter than themselves.  Many of our friends are built by proximity, rather than similar interests.

Gladwell does a great job to show his philosophy on the growth of epidemics. The little things in our world cause them. When we see this, it’s important to not go after the major crimes. It won’t be effective. Rather, go after the minor details to solve the issue. Kill the root; don’t go after the tree.

“Are you a snake-oil salesman or a scientist?” This short read takes the scientific approach of social media. It points to the best-practices and asks them to show proof why things are shared. And then it goes deeper into the research-driven results.

Just because an idea is viral, doesn’t mean it’s a good one. Tons of good ideas go nowhere, so what makes for a viral equation. It becomes a matter of the ability to reproduce. Three components make something viral.

1. Exposure: A person must be exposed to your content to even see it. (They have to follow you on Twitter, fan on facebook, email list, etc.). And the larger you’re following, the more likely you’ll lead to success.

• - The larger your network, the more likely that your item will be viral. Size matters!
• - People follow “authorities” and “gurus”, so don’t be modest in your Twitter descriptions. People don’t follow amateurs.
• - Content: Don’t be a negative Nancy. And don’t talk about yourself. ALso, the largest influencers on Twitter don’t have many conversations.
• As we saw in the OMMA awards: Social marketing is expensive (ad buys, write-ups, etc. Exposure is exensive)

2. Attention: You have to somehow put eyes on the content. Create attention-grabbing content.

• - People like content that is original and familiar. e.g. Gnomeo. Romeo/Juliet spun in a Gnome fashion. It’s original, but familiar. The most popular content follow this.
• - Pesonalization still wins.
• - Push out content in the times that it’s the most quiet within the network. e.g. Weekend emails don’t compete with the Tuesday rush. Facebook sharing is higher on the weekends.
• - People want to share valuable information to network, so they can build reputation of being someone that is interesting to interact with.
• - People don’t want to regurgitate the same content to their network. They value originality.
• - Be simple. Be clear. Be positive, and never be complicated.
• - Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives an adverbs. The adjective hasn’t been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.

3. Motivation: There has to be reason to share it with their network. Have a powerful call-to-action.

• - People only care about themselves. They want your content that helps them become better. 10 top way to do this… improve your marketing by this… et.c  The most retweetable word is “you”. People want you to talk about them.

“If you’re not measuring it, you’re doing something very, very wrong”

So, have a large audience, have good content, and give people reason to share it.

A book about understanding the people you manage, this takes the approach that there’s no processed way to become a productive manager. As many know, the relationship people have with their direct manager affects how long they stay at the company and their overall happiness. Talented managers retain talented people.

A manager’s job is not to manage, but to help their employees. “How can I be of assistance to you today?” The employee is the star, and the manager is the agent, working for their employees. However, a coach/manager means nothing, if he’s not surrounded by talented people. You can only get so far if you don’t have the right people.

The  main challenge is working with people’s strengths to get the best out of them. Every person is different, is motivated different, and has their own quirkiness.

One of the really interesting metaphors this book uses though is the development of the brain in our childhood years. Each part of our brain uses connections to stimulate brain activity. It’s like a highway system of cars. If we are more creative in our younger years, these connections grow larger. So, the highway is expanded to a six-lane highway so it can hold more traffic. However, the math skills that have never been used, are still there, but they are left to be stranded as a lonely highway. It can still be used, but the connection isn’t as complex. So, work with the six-lane highways, and quit trying to force a complex highway system on a person that can only manage their single lane. The large highways are the person’s talents.

The other metaphor they use refers to the mountain. Once we start at a new company or a duanting project, it’s similar to looking up at a mountain before the climb. We’re scared. We know there will be danger; it will be cold; and it will be a test of will. But you push forward for the adventure. And the reason we do this? We want to conquer that mountain. We want to stand on top of it and say I was here. That is why we make our climb and move past the intimidation.

The overall insight:

People don’t change that much
Don’t waste time trying to put what was left out.;
Try to draw out what was left in.
That’s hard enough.

Each person is different and needs to be managed differently. Play favorites. Reward some, while not others. A manager is a catalyst trying to find the right chemistry to build this for his employees.

Each person has a select talents: Talents are only recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior.

“They define a talent as ‘a recurring pattern of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied. ‘ The emphasis here is the word recurring. Your talents , they say, are the behaviors you find yourself doing often. Your instinctive ability to remember names, rather than just faces is a talent. Your need to alphabetize your spice rack and color code your wardrobe is a talent. So is your love of crossword puzzles, or your fascination with risk, or your impatience. Any recurring patterns of behavoir that can be productively applied are talents. The key to excellent performance of course is finding the match between your talents and your role.”

I can relate to achievers:

“Similarly, some people have a four-lane highway for constant achievement… They may not have to win, but they do feel a burning need to achieve something tangible every single day. And these kind of people mean “every single day.” For them, everyday -workday, weekend, vacation- every day starts at zero. They have to rack up some numbers by the end of the day to feel good about themselves. The burning flame may dwindle as evening comes, but the next morning it rekindles itself.

Define the right outcomes. And then let each person find his own route toward those outcomes. Guide them to the goal. How they achieve it, is up to them. Building boundaries is good. Be creative within boundaries.

Good to Great explores the concept of what characteristics of how companies become great. The author studied many corporations who have experienced sustainable growth and success over decades. It’s not a manner of a growing industry, a competitive advantage in information, or one specific leader that sets these companies apart. No, they uncovered a handful of concepts and patterns between these differing organizations.

Below I’ve listed some of the big ideas:

- The best students are those who never quite believe their professors. Never follow blind acceptance.

Leaders:

• - Leadership: Many of the great company leaders never cultivated hero status or celebrity status.
• - “I never stopped trying to become qualified for the job”
• - Leaders can blend extreme personal humility with intense professional will.
• - Their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves. They put the company ahead of themselves, always asking “What’s best for the company?” They don’t look for fame or riches. Always want to produce results. Show horse vs. a plow horse.
• - Challenges and opposition are natural for a company. It’s how you deal with it that matters. These challenges are opportunities. But, in the other companies, they were boundaries. Can’t blame poor results on the people, external factors or luck. In the end, they blame themselves.
• - Characteristics: quiet, humble, modest, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, understated, did not believe in his own clippings.

People

• -Get the right people on the bus. Get the wrong people off the bus. Then figure out where to drive it.
• -Right people do not need to be motivated. They are already passionate about what they do.
• -The right people will do the right things and deliver the best results they’re capable of, regardless of incentive system.
• -Compensation should be used to motivate the wrong people. It should be used to attract the right people in the first place. ]
• -If the bus changes direction, the right people will be there to help to support. That’s why it’s important to have them first.
• -If you have to make cuts, just do it once.
• -When in doubt, don’t hire – keep looking.
• -Good people don’t need to be managed. Guided, taught, led – yes. But not tightly managed.
• -Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems.

Confront the  Brutal Facts

• -Lead with questions, not answers (Golden Rule)
• - Role as a mediator to have healthy arguments
• -Ability to confront issues, instead of overlook them.
• -Never need to motivate people. Manage to not to de-motivate.
• -Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end regardless of difficulties. And confront those brutal facts with the current reality.
  People who put timelines to new fortunes and are optimistic die of a broken heart when it doesn’t happen.

Humans naturally like to praise others. We enjoy telling people how great they did; we clap for an entertaining performance, and we admire the people we want to be like. Being social is human, and we praise one another publicly to help fill this natural need.

In Facebook , this praise is not as straightforward. Many of us show our support through the Like button, but we also follow these pages for a variety of other reasons:

• Self-Expressionists
  We align ourselves with the brands, causes, and ideas that we see in ourselves. We want to support animal welfare, so we add and share content from the ASPCA. To show our upscale taste to the world, we follow Giorgio Armani. Or perhaps we want to tell people we’re impatient, so we Like the “I hate waiting” page.  We subscribe to these pages because they are a tangible piece of our complex personality.

e.g. The music artists that we follow.

• Consumers
  Facebook is a great tool to keep in the know. In baseball, good pitching will beat good hitting. In the social world, good content will beat a good brand name. Content drives subscriptions and loyalty. For some brands, such as the entertainment and news organizations, their content is their brand. So, as a channel for information, we sign up strictly to consume, comment, and/or share.
  e.g. The insightful guru: Seth Godin
• Coupon Cutters
  Many people sign up for our Facebook page strictly for special offers. Let’s face it. We all want to save money, so people trade their “Like” for exclusive deals. And if the deals suddenly ended, we most likely would go elsewhere. With this type of subscription, we also have a certain level of tolerance for dealing with irrelevant content. Not every deal is going to be used. In fact, not many of them at all, but we keep subscribed in hopes to find something we want.

e.g. Groupon deals via Facebook: Groupon San Francisco

• Accomplishers
  In our life, major accomplishments guide us along to who we are today. And we’re proud to show our current goals or past achievements. We show where we graduated from. Or we proudly display each “Like” as if they were a trophy we received at the end of the race. Whichever our reason – as a symbol of accomplishment or a goal to be accomplished – this type of subscription is a proud symbol of our lifestyle.

E.g. Marathoners unite.  Boston Marathon

• Obligators
  Each person has their daily business relationships – their workplace, their dentist, or the family coffee shop. We are not as interested in the content, as much as we are for supporting them publicly.  We may have been personally asked to like the page. Or perhaps we want to show support for a friend. Either way, these personal relationships motivate us to like the page, whether through support or obligation
  e.g. Our sister’s business

Many people subscribe to your page for a variety of reasons. And these categories do not have clear-cut lines. Some of your followers may fall into more than one category. But, discovering and understanding why people subscribe to your page can give you better insight on meeting their needs to build and keeping their attention and/or loyalty.

A desire for adventure, a look into the past, a family bonding trip – we vacation for a unique experience with our own motivations. But what pushes us to “Like” a destination’s content? And what keeps us subscribed to them, even after we travel?

What Works:

• Relevance through Segmentation
  On a trip to Boston, one person may be visiting for the history; another may be looking for family-friendly events, while another may care just about golfing. We travel for our own personal interests, similar to the content we consume. 

  Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, provide a corporate page with multiple sub-pages for segmented content, which in turn increases your followers’ engagement. If you have a lot of international travelers, you may want Facebook pages for different languages. Does your destination cover a vast area? You may need to provide pages for each state and/or large city. Do you have different types of targeted vacationers? You may consider separating each page by personas based on interest.

  Checkout: http://www.facebook.com/VISITFLORIDA
  Visit Florida uses nine different personas including Golf, Outdoors/Nature, and Family. They promote events, provide news articles, and give recommendations for local businesses for each type of interest.  This strategy also helps cross-pollinate content, while still making the post relevant. E.g. The Outdoors/Nature page could comment on the types of wildlife found at the National Park on the Family wall.

• Gateway Welcome Page
  Through a Gateway Tab, you can direct visitors to a custom welcome screen, rather than your Facebook wall. So, instead of being judged by a recent post on a crime that was resolved, new visitors will first be directed to a tab with a smiling llama grazing along the Andes Mountains with Machu Picchu as a backdrop – a much better welcoming. 

  Our visitor’s welcome should provide a visual story of the possibilities that lie ahead of them. Show interesting photos; embed a YouTube video. You have an interested visitor, so show them a piece of the adventure.

  Checkout: http://www.facebook.com/TravelOregon
  Geared towards the outdoor travelers, the gateway page provides adventure stories for hikers, golfers, cyclists, and other adventure sports. The tone of the welcome page plays well with the videos, appealing to local and non-local visitors.

• Comment-worthy
  When posting, always follow the golden rule of social marketing – don’t talk about how great you are; let your followers do that for you. To do this, each post should fill one requirement. Is it comment-worthy 
  • Prompt – Always prompt people to comment. Have an interesting fact? Post it as a trivia question.  Get people’s thoughts on a specific painting in the famous art museum. Prompting answers gets people publicly reminiscing, which provides quality content for your wall. 
  • Local content – People want to feel like locals when they visit. In fact, a majority of your followers may be locals. This doesn’t mean you should post local road construction updates; however, it does mean to recommend a local beer and then ask people what their favorite is.
  • Photos – People love seeing photos of past vacations. Don’t hesitate to show photos in the majority of your posts, add new photos to galleries, and “Like” photos others have shared with you.  People respond better with visuals, especially in travel.
  • Deals – Sharing great deals on local events, hotels, and airlines is a must. But don’t overdo it. This also means monitoring your “local” vendors pushing out their deals to your wall.  Position your wall as a living travel guide; not a deal aggregator. If you become the latter, your followers stop talking to you, and your posts silently fall out of your contacts’ news stream.

Many travelers decide their next vacation based on the recommendations of people who have visited there before.  The value of a “Like” allows past travelers to reminisce and potential visitors to listen, bridging this gap and keeping our destination a consideration for their next vacation.

By making a good first impression through a gateway page, providing relevant information to our contacts’ interests, and prompting past travelers to discuss their experiences, our travel brand will continually attract new audiences and stay within our contact’s news stream.

With that being said, here are some of the better points:

• 1. Games are engaging. They’re social. With so many things to capture attention, games still can cut through the clutter and capture a person’s attention and time.
• 2. Generation G – The greatest game-playing demographic in history. How to market to them? ]
• 3. In order to compete with games, marketing must become a game
• 4. Everyone likes to win (playing games) or they likes to see tense situations (watching games)
• 5. Create a competition in your marketing promotions. This engages.
• 6. Balance long term commitment with the small rewards to keep beginners interested.
• 7. Army example. Built a game around life in the Army. Got more teenagers thinking of enrolling.
• 8. Don’t weight the odds of winning too much
• 9. People will still compete despite not winning money.
• 10. Games of chance will not fare as well as games of achievement

As an example, I  recently played the “Loneliest Highway” game, and it worked. I needed to accomplish all objectives (all cities, which I may have not done otherwise) to get a meaningless item (key chain of Highway 50 Survivor). It wasn’t about money. It was about the accomplishment. Grrr… Game mentality.

Types of Gamers

• 1. Achievers – desire to get points, achieve goals and hit their mark. They like winnable games that have an end point. Require an audience to appreciate their accomplishments.
• 2. Socializers – play games in order to connect with others. Less competitive and more cooporative. Love group-play.
• 3. Explorers – Far more interested in mapping out their environment. The richer the world, the better. Prize random puzzles and side stories. All about journey, not destination.
• 4. Killers – Like to win. Enjoy competition and prefer social game environments. They rarely enjoy solitaire. They want win/lose games. And want to win as much as possible.

Components of “Funware”

• Status and Levels – outward display of achievement
• Points – how they’re doing in the game
• Rules – aka structure
• Demonstrability – Showing off

Remember when marketing only used to consist of the four P’s – Product, Price, Place, and Promotion? Back then businesses crafted a message, delivered it through one-way media channels – commercials, billboards, flyers – and we, as consumers, could only choose whether or not to trust this information.

Today, we still consume these one-way messages, but we rely on the wisdom of crowds for our final decision. We review ratings on Amazon and Yelp; we search the brand’s Facebook page and keywords on Twitter; or we Google “[company name] sucks” to get the other side of the story.

Seth Godin’s recent post on “Why you might choose to be in favor of transparency” sheds light on services and businesses that are resisting this change. And this will prove to do more harm than good to these businesses.  One example he uses shows a service offered to doctors, which hopes to prevent their patients from posting doctor reviews.  Obviously this is bad for patients, but it also is bad for the doctors:

When consumers get used to transparency, they’re also more interested in the quality of what you sell, and are more likely to willingly pay extra.

I constantly use Yelp to try new places that others find amazing. How many times have you asked a friend, “How many ratings does this restaurant have?” We’re not excited about the 3 reviews with 5 star ratings (thanks Mom!), but we will pay an extra few dollars for the more expensive, 200 ratings with an average of 4 stars. It’s the Yelp Peer-Pressure factor. Amazon, iTunes, and TravelAdvisor work the same way.

On the marketing side, these social tools help guide the decisions of new customers and affirm the beliefs of current ones. So, as marketers, our job now is to motivate people to rate or publish their experience for all to see, good or bad. Now our marketing strategies should be directed towards these people who post and rate their experiences because they are the ones who influence everyone else.

So grab a few more P’s for your marketing strategy –participation, preference, peer-pressure, whatever you’d like – and target and motivate the people who will honestly rate or provide comments around their experience with your brand.   And if the responses are overwhelmingly positive, let the marketing take care of itself.

And while you’re at it, you should leave a comment before you go…

Bridget got this book for me for my Birthday. It was a good read, and it had some useful info, which I’ve shared below.

You have the unique Idea: Sometimes uniqueness and creativity can mean making things that already available but better and more focused than competitors

A bit easier said than done, right? This book grabs the ideals adding time back to your day. In fact, if you look at GTD or the “Getting Things Done” principals, you will almost find a cult of people who live by these principles. There’s apps in the  app store  in regards to the methodologies. SO, yes, some people live and die by it.

Overall, the book really puts PURPOSE behind our workday. Here’s  the  highlights:

• - Visualize the  desired outcome. What’s the next actionable item to get there
• - Action Items need to be actionable and a clear beginning and end:
  • - What’s the very next physical process that needs to be done to move this along:
  • - Have to clean the garage? The item should be setup in components: Remove old paint, Organize Shelves
• - Only handle things once
  • - Do it: Quit being a burden. Just get it done. (2 min or less)
  • - Delegation – Are you the best person to be doing the work? If not, delegate.
  • - Defer:  Make a project with an “Next Action” item. Or… Setup a time around it.
  • - Dump it: Don’t commit
• - Develop “Next Action” lists, not “To-Do Lists”
• - Anything you consider unfinished in anyway adds to your stress. You need to make everything actionable. You can train yourself, like an athlete, to be faster, more responsive, more proactive, and more focused.
• - Setup time each week to keep things flowing. Chi Time. So you feel comfortable with your tasks. Review Next Action list. Review Waiting For Lists. And remove the  negative stress

Steps for planning

• - Purpose: Defining the why. Brings value to the outcome/to the goal.
• - Focus: You won’t see how to do it until you see yourself doing it.
• - Outcome: This is the end goal. It gives focus. It’s the tangible, end result.
• - Plan: The area that fills the gap of where are today and where you want to go.
• - Actionable Items: What steps will move along the project to the desired outcome.

Other notables:

• - Your mind should be like water. “How does water respond? The answer is totally appropriately to the force and mass of then it returns to calm. It doesn’t overreact; it doesn’t under react. ” Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you.
• - Plans help close the gap. Gaps are where you’re looking at, and your current state. This is the importance of visualizing the outcome. Show where you are, and show where you need to be.
• - Think of project that’s stuck. Think of the purpose. Think of the successful outcome. Brainstorm the steps. Organize the ideas. And then decide next actions.
• - Save time with Keyboard shortcuts and quit messing with the mouse as much.
• - Keep agenda lists. For your meetings; for impromptu meetings with people; for your travel.
• - Get out of the reactive mode. e.g. Email -> React Quickly. This creates stress. PRocess things within the prioritized, natural process. Eliminate reactive.
• - Review the high level items to make sure what you’re doing makes sense. Is your job aligned with your life? Does your daily work align with the promotion you want to receive.
• - Take advantage of “weird” time. e.g. Flights, Meetings, Walking to Lunch… Call people then; process email, etc.
• - Visualize where you want to be in 12 months, 36 months, etc. Is what you’re doing going to get you there.
• - Purpose vs. Goals vs. Tasks
• - Maintenance vs. Management vs. Growth