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Like anyone that has a marketing or advertising component to their job, finding the right way to break through the clutter and make your message memorable is one of the toughest goals to achieve. I picked up Powerlines by Steve Cone with the hope that it might offer some formula or tips on how to create great powerlines for use in my marketing/advertising copy.

To be clear, Cone defines Powerlines as “a compelling story about an event, person, place, product, or a part of human nature that has lasting impact. Sometimes these lines are just a few words, sometimes several sentences, and once in a great while, must one word.” This definition in itself is not very powerline-ish but it is a definition … just one that I couldn’t remember off the top of my head and had to go look up just now. He also says powerlines must “ring true” and they should not overreach.

I like books that have lots of great examples and then actions you can take immediately to start enacting the change the book is advocating. Powerlines has lots of great examples but I didn’t find the tips came early enough in the book. Either I’m not seeing them or they just aren’t there. He had tidbits here and there but he didn’t dedicate as much text to steps you can take to improve the powerlines you create. Read More

Part of my current responsibilities at work – one that I particularly enjoy – is managing the student newspaper. I’m not the editor, my job is to hire and train the students who work on it, make sure the files get to the printer, ensure everyone gets paid and other administrative duties.

One of the biggest challenges we face at the newspaper is recruiting and retaining volunteer writers. I’ve been studying reward systems from a consumer perspective (e.g. how to use programs like Air Miles to encourage customer behaviour) for a few years but haven’t thought of a specific strategy for employees.

The idea popped into my head this past summer and I sought out a book I could learn from. that’s where Steve Kerr’s Reward Systems: Does Yours Measure Up? came into play.

Steve Kerr has been the Chief Learning Officer and managing director at Goldman Sachs and before that spent time as GE’s CLO heading up their prestigious Crotonville corporate university. Read More

The other day, Google Docs just wouldn’t load for me. I have no idea what was happening or why I couldn’t log on. It was very frustrating.

I searched and searched and at the end of the day, the only tip that worked for me was clearing my cache. Someone else suggested deleting all Google related cookies

Clearing my cache magically worked. I simply cleared the cache, quit and restarted the browser and there were no more problems.

I’ve been wanting to read this particular book for a really long time. I picked it up and it sat on my shelf for well over six months before I made my way though my list of other books I had committed to myself to read.

I’m a big fan of Starbucks and the way they make you feel when you buy product there. In fact I like the way they make you feel even when you don’t buy product there.

I began reading The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary in the bookstore and couldn’t put it down. In fact I made it through the rather lengthy introduction and half of chapter one before I put it under my arm and headed for the cash register.

Author Joseph A. Michelli details Starbuck’s five principles of being they use to separate themselves from the pack. They are:

1. Make it your own
2. Everything Matters
3. Surprise and Delight
4. Embrace Resistance
5. Leave Your Mark Read More

I’ve been working with a friend on their parent’s company Web site and one of the users asked if there was a solution to a common problem: inserting multiple images into a blog post or page at one time. WordPress’ image inserting abilities only let you insert one image at a time or use the gallery function. Neither works very well if you want to insert several larger images into a post.

I’ve tried several solutions but just came across David Frank’s Fast Image Insert plugin. He has the same frustration so he created this plugin that allows you to insert several images at once into the same post or page.

Read more to see how it works. Read More

My best friend (Miles) and his wife (Ruchika, also an awesome friend) hooked me up with a copy of Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace for my birthday.

Miles and I had talked about this company for a few years. He had heard about them and the way they do business, discussed the radical way things are accomplished there so it was nice to read about it in a book written by Ricard Semler, the CEO of the company.

Semler took over Semco from his father when he was 20 years old. Based in Brazil, Semco had prospered under the government’s five year plans that included building up Brazil’s shipping business. Being a supplier of marine parts the company had done very well.

However as the economy sagged and Semler Sr. handed over the reigns to his son, Ricardo went about transforming Semco into a democratically run manufacturing business where workers set their own hours and salary and the office space is redesigned as after as the seasons change (sometimes even more).

Read More

Who needs a lesson in how we communicate? Probably lots of us these days. We’ve all gotten those e-mails that read horribly but the sender didn’t mean to come across so rudely. I recommend Tim Sander’s 12 rules for e-mail ettiquette as a good place to start to develop your personal e-mail policy. So while you’re waiting for that to arrive in the mail, get rid of these phrases.

1. blah blah blah, don’t you think?

In real life this phrase is useful because you’re inviting the person you’re speaking with to share their ideas and bounce some brainstorming around. Online it’s just a one-way conversation and comes across a bit smug and patronizing

2. No

No is something you say to someone’s face or at the very least over the phone. When someone asks you a question in e-mail, respond with either a yes or a request for more information. If you need to reject their request then have the common courtesy to say it in person or let them hear your voice. They’ll probably have questions like “why,” and again, in an e-mail you can’t have that conversation

3. Any wrod spelt worng

Spelling things wrong in an e-mail is akin to telling someone you don’t really care about the message you’re delivering. Honestly, how hard is spell check? Plus, doesn’t your e-mail program automatically underline spelling errors? If not, start using one that does.

I was given The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything last year by the group leader of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Signature Workshop I attended last year. Like many reviewers on the Internet I was worried that Covey Jr. wouldn’t be able to add much to the conversation that his father had started and rather he was just making use of the family name.

My suspicions were way off base. Covey Jr. does an excellent job of discussing “the one thing that changes everything.” He provides excellent examples of how building trust – both personally and within an organization – leads to better results, faster paths to excellence and greater efficiency.

Covey Jr. presents a 360 degree action plan for building trust, first with yourself right through your organization. He doesn’t sugar coat the process pretending that’s as easy as flipping a switch but he does provide proof of concept that it can be done.

Just as his father has seven steps to become highly effective, ‘lil Covey presents four broad subject headings that are then broken down into smaller steps beginning with: Read More

In conversations with my boss at work she’s not convinced you need to hand hold Gen Yers as much as Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y might be suggesting. She says that at some point Gen Yers just need to either figure it out on their own or have some freaking initiative.

I agree with her and I think what this book is trying to accomplish is give you the tools when dealing with a Gen Y workforce. Some Gen Yers are really motivated and won’t need nearly the amount of heavy usage of the tips in this book that others well. But some will need A LOT of you using the suggestions from this book with them.

What I’ve found since implementing some of the strategies is I’m getting better accountability from my Gen Y direct reports. At just way over half way through this book I can safely say I’m satisfied with it over all. Read More