The New ABCs of Selling and Persuading The nature of sales and persuasion is changing, according to author Daniel H. Pink, and extroversion and aggressiveness aren’t the answers anymore. Pink, whose new book is To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth about Moving Others, spoke at the closing session of the recent annual conference of the American Society of Association Executives. While his presentation was directed at association professionals in particular, he included a number of insightful ideas and examples of use to fundraisers. Pink began by recalling a scene from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, where actor Alec Baldwin reminds a group of real estate salesmen that they should follow the ABCs of selling: Always Be Closing. While “caveat emptor” (buyer beware) used to be a common phrase when referring to selling and negotiations, the most accurate term is now “caveat venditor”—seller beware. The New ABCs Clarity is especially important because of the increasing amount of information that may overwhelm people. Three Rules
What Would a Down-to-Earth Economy Look Like? How did we end up with Wall Street when models for a healthy economy are all around us? posted Jan 17, 2013 With proper care and respect, Earth can provide a high quality of life for all people in perpetuity. Yet we devastate productive lands and waters for a quick profit, a few temporary jobs, or a one-time resource fix. Our current expansion of tar sands oil extraction, deep-sea oil drilling, hydraulic fracturing natural gas extraction, and mountaintop-removal coal mining are but examples of this insanity. A global economy dependent on this nonsense is already failing and its ultimate collapse is only a matter of time. To secure the health and happiness of future generations, we must embrace life as our defining value, recognize that competition is but a subtext of life’s deeper narrative of cooperation, and restructure our institutions to conform to life’s favored organizing principle of radically decentralized, localized decision making and self-organization. Our Original Instructions
Conscious Capitalism Prof. Raj Sisodia, Founder of the Conscious Capitalism Institute, with publisher Bettina Gordon on the principles of Conscious Capitalism With Passion and Purpose toward Profit Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus introduced the term to society, now it is on business leaders’ lips around the country: Conscious Capitalism. Bettina Gordon met the founder of the Conscious Capitalism Institute, Prof. Rajendra S. By Bettina M. Prof. The job of the institute is to study the facts about Conscious Capitalism, to collect the thoughts and suggestions of the CEOs of the new capitalism and to forward the processed knowledge to an academic consortium which will teach Conscious Capitalism at the business schools around the world in the future. Sisodia already dealt with the parameters of the new capitalism intensively in his 2007 bestseller Firms of Endearment. Bettina Gordon: Prof. Raj Sisodia: It’s a capitalism that firmly says “no more” to the old paradigm. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Value Creation vs. Value Capture Why developers should start choosing conscience over profit This is a guest post by Jason Cavnar, the co-founder and CEO of Singly. Over the holidays, I looked around the living room and saw eight adults over 55 sending text messages, having video conversations with loved ones in other cities, and showing each other the new apps they use. In our living rooms, at the office, in our classrooms, in our cars, and in our pockets, innovation in software has radically changed the world we know. With this has come a shift in what society celebrates and what we value in the technology world. Do you know what is cool? Consider that across the world, founders like Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Kevin Systrom grace magazine covers and television programs as we celebrate their meteoric wealth creation and unique command of the PR machine. This trend has been evident during interactions I’ve had with many developers during the past year. Are you a maker or taker? Makers don’t need to be valued at the highest end of the market. Makers on the rise A Call to arms
Sustainability Indexes - Corporate Sustainability Corporate Sustainability is a business approach that creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments. Corporate sustainability leaders achieve long-term shareholder value by gearing their strategies and management to harness the market's potential for sustainability products and services while at the same time successfully reducing and avoiding sustainability costs and risks. The quality of a company's strategy and management and its performance in dealing with opportunities and risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments can be quantified and used to identify and select leading companies for investment purposes. Leading sustainability companies display high levels of competence in addressing global and industry challenges in a variety of areas: Corporate sustainability performance is an investable concept.
The Evolution of Social Business: Six Stages of Social Business Transformation Research Report: The Evolution of Social Business: Six Stages of Social Business Transformation Author: Charlene Li and Brian Solis, with Alan Webber and Jaimy Szymanski Publication Date: March 6, 2013 Webinars: Six Stages of Social Business, with Charlene Li & Brian Solis, June 26, 2013; and The Seven Success Factors of Social Business Strategy, with Charlene Li & Brian Solis, August 15, 2013 Companies are not created equal when it comes to social media maturity. In fact, Altimeter’s survey of nearly 700 social media professionals and executives found that only 34% of businesses felt that their social strategy was connected to business outcomes. Clearly aligned with strategic business goals of an organizationHas organizational alignment and support that enables execution of that strategy But, as Altimeter also uncovered, half of all executives are not informed, engaged, or aligned with their company’s social media strategies in any capacity.
Toward zero unemployment A dozen generations ago, there was no unemployment, largely because there were no real jobs to speak of. Before the industrial revolution, the thought that you’d leave your home and go to an office or a factory was, of course, bizarre. What happens now that the industrial age is ending? As the final days of the industrial age roll around, we are seeing the core assets of the economy replaced by something new. Actually, it’s something old, something handmade, but this time, on a huge scale. The industrial age was about scarcity. On the other hand, the connection economy, our economy, the economy of the foreseeable future, embraces abundance. We know more people, have access to more resources, and can leverage our skills more quickly and at a higher level than ever before. This abundance leads to two races. The other race is the race to the top: the opportunity to be the one they can’t live without, to be the linchpin we would miss if he didn’t show up. Friends bring us more friends.
Givers take all: The hidden dimension of corporate culture - McKinsey Quarterly - Organization - Talent After the tragic events of 9/11, a team of Harvard psychologists quietly “invaded” the US intelligence system. The team, led by Richard Hackman, wanted to determine what makes intelligence units effective. By surveying, interviewing, and observing hundreds of analysts across 64 different intelligence groups, the researchers ranked those units from best to worst. Then they identified what they thought was a comprehensive list of factors that drive a unit’s effectiveness—only to discover, after parsing the data, that the most important factor wasn’t on their list. Rather, the single strongest predictor of group effectiveness was the amount of help that analysts gave to each other. The importance of helping-behavior for organizational effectiveness stretches far beyond intelligence work. Across these diverse contexts, organizations benefit when employees freely contribute their knowledge and skills to others. Yet far too few companies enjoy these benefits. Give, take, or match Dream on