In short, McDonald’s initiated a social media campaign on twitter. People were encouraged to share their stories about McDonald’s using hashtag #mcdstories.

I can just imagine the stories they thought they’d hear. All unicorns and rainbows.

Reality bit hard.

People shared stories that would freak you out if you even know someone who eats at McDonald’s, let alone eat there yourself.

Old school thinking would use this as a reason to avoid social media. This thinking is fear based, it works by ignoring problems and hoping people don’t notice. It’s very scary for these sorts of thinkers to let go of controlling the message and hearing bad stuff. (Me, I like to hear bad stuff, said nicely!, so I can improve.)

The new way of thinking, I pray, is to stop and say “shit, we better improve the eating experience at McDonald’s”. It’s not about “hoping no one notices” but rather about delivering excellence and continuous improvement.

It’s about building a process and a culture around doing what you, with all your experience know, to be right for your customer instead of being a slave to doing things well enough so no one screams (and then making it hard to scream).

Social media enables a peer-based connection between companies and customers that smart companies will use to deliver a better customer experience than their competitors.

Let me repeat that because it’s really important. Social media is not about Fan Pages, or hashtags, or blogs. It’s about connecting more authentically with your customers to meet their needs better than anyone else.

An authentic connection with your customers gives you better insight into their needs and helps you build a better execution strategy. A focus on Fan Pages and other nonsense us all about gimmicks and deals. Everyone loves a deal. You need them to love your brand. Big freaking difference.

A final note. You might say that Apple, the largest market cap company in the world doesn’t use social media and they’re doing just fine. My answer… When you’re hitting it out of the park like Apple, you can make your own rules too. More likely, you’re giving people a McDonald’s experience not an Apple one. Can you hear me now?

What do Sears, The Gap, and Friendly’s all have in common?

They’re sucking wind right now. All closing retail outlets. In fact, there were two articles on the front page of the NY Times Business Section today about this. It also listed a bunch of restaurant chains, including Friendly’s, that are in Chapter 11 (bankruptcy).

It got me thinking. Not too hard, mind you.

What they have in common is that their business model is around a homogenous product, efficiently mass produced, and sold to people who are trained to conform by marketing.

That’s so old school.

Today, the trend is about personalization. A personal connection. Perhaps social media has driven this, though I believe there’s more to it.

You know, I was in a coffee shop earlier this week and had a bit of a “conversation” with the barrista. If I wanted a to go cup (which I did), I couldn’t stay and drink my coffee. But, if I wanted to stay, I couldn’t have the to go cup. It had nothing to do with sales tax, which in NY is now different if it’s to stay or to go. I’m not sure what it was about. The shop was mostly empty, so I wasn’t going to be taking a seat someone else might use.

Last week, I walked into Edward’s. I’ve joked that I’ve outsourced my kitchen to Edward’s I eat there so often. In any case, I was in a rush. I walked in and ordered dinner and a drink before I even had my coat off and without looking at the menu. The bartender gets called into the kitchen by the cook, and when he comes out (he’s relatively new) he looks a bit confused. Tells me the cook won’t cook my burger until I confirm that I don’t want the special (shrimp tacos). He knows how much I like his shrimp tacos.

Old school service. New school service.

It’s no longer about mass marketing undifferentiated products (and by products, I mean item + service). It’s about a personalized experience and a personal connection. Sears, The Gap, and Friendly’s may not get it. I bet the companies that replace them will.

Solutions like this are silly and annoying. If you want people to behave a certain way, have a rule. Or, do like other coffee shops, and put a code on the bottom of the receipt that gives you 2 hours of interneting for each purchase. It’s like when Starbucks used to keep the music louder so people wouldn’t stay. It’s annoying. If they had a rule, it would just set expectations, and customers could self-select.

By the way, as the article points out, the power blocking is silly. So many devices these days have more than enough juice for a full day of work even without plugging in.

I see both sides of the situation. The truth is, it’s unfair for people to hang out all day and buy just a cup of coffee. Or, as an article I remember said, people who sit all day and bring their own tea bags and just buy a cup of hot water. On the other hand, we need a “third room” — a place to get together with others, or simply to get out of our homes and be in a more social situation.

That said, I’ve thrown together 7 rules that I personally follow in order to maximize my welcome at Wichcraft, a place I gratefully think of as my office on days when I don’t want to be alone. By the way, Wichcraft has much tastier coffee than that mermaid place outlet-blocking place. The service is professional, they have a frequent buyer card/bonus, and they have a 1/2 price coffee hour daily from 3PM-6PM.

Here they are, David’s 7 rules of coffee shop trolling:

1. Use the smallest space possible. It’s amazing how many people spread out obnoxiously.
2. Always be friendly and polite to other guests. I’ve actually helped people fix their computers when they can’t get online.
3. Help keep the place clean. It really doesn’t take much to pickup a napkin on the floor, or put away someone’s left-behind newspaper.
4. Buy something. My personal rule is one thing per half day.
5. Share your table. This one’s fun too — you never know who you’ll meet!
6. During busy times, like lunch, let them have the table back. If there are no available tables left let them have the table for someone who might otherwise not choose to eat lunch there. Go for a walk, if you’ve been there all day already you probably need a break anyways.
7. Be kind to the staff. Spend a little time watching how hard they work, especially at places where the staff is good. Me, I bring chocolates for everyone in the back to share (and I always give it to them after I’ve paid for my coffee — I want it to be a gift). I also try to remember their names.

He has four key recommendations to help adapt the workplace to the millennial generation. They are:

1. Offer Real-Time Response
2. Support a “Bring Your Own Devices” IT Equipment Strategy
3. Enable Anywhere Access
4. Foster Collaborative Communication

He states boldly:

“to recruit and retain top talent, businesses have no choice but to adapt”

I couldn’t agree more. And, I think it’s an impossibility for this to occur on any large scale at big employers within a reasonable time. It’s too hard to manage in the procedural way most organizations work, and they’re too far behind.

This “state of IT” is accelerating the changes to the makeup of this thing we call work. It’s blurring the lines between work, play, home… and we’re going to need new tools to manage our career-life balance going forward.

If you’re interested in my ideas around creating a more fulfilling career by learning to balance these different areas of your life, sign up for my newsletter and we’ll let you know when I have my first seminar (it’s in March, so it’s soon).

I value your privacy and your time, your email will remain private and the newsletter valuable to you. You can unsubscribe at anytime.

Clicking on “subscribe to newsletter” will take you to Infinite Probabilities, the company I’ve recently founded. I apologize, it was just easier to do it this way.

The purpose of this post is mostly to say “me too”, and also to point out a couple of startups they link to that I’m excited to have found. I setup accounts for both, and am pleased they exist.

The two startups are:

Gist. I have to say, I had this idea a while ago (I’m sure I’m not the only one). I’m glad to see someone’s building it. Looks great, though admittedly I’ve only watched the video on their home page. I will check this out shortly. I hope they have a mobile app in the works.

Etacts. Don’t like the name, but what got me excited was Etacts’ firefox extension that appears to be Xobni for gmail. Of course, Xobni has been around a lot longer and is way cooler, but… having moved to a Mac two+ years ago, I’ve been Xobni-less for a while now. Etact’s web site doesn’t do it for me… but I’m hoping their plugin does. I like their ideas… and they can only get better over time. They’re getting at the “right” information, I hope they learn how to help me make email more useful.

Of course, these are both for Gmail. I get enough Gmail, especially with my work on Where’s Your Heart?. What I really need though is something for Mac Mail and corporate email. I do wish Xobni would help me.

Anyways, check out these companies and let me know what you think. I’m always looking for ways to be more productive.

That advice is “participate” in the conversation. It’s very obvious when you run across a blog where the person just talks. They don’t usually reference other conversations or ideas. They also don’t refer to comments they’ve made, and importantly, they don’t link to other articles/posts/items.

I did this when I first started blogging over at Progress, and it was a successful way to get my voice added to the symphony. I’ve let that practice slip over the last 6 months, and that’s a shame.

So, here’s some advice you’ve probably heard a million times before. This makes it a million and one.

1. Spend more time commenting on other people’s blogs than writing your own. It’s being a good citizen, but also helps to establish credibility. And, we all like readers to our blogs, and are more likely to read a blog for someone who regularly participates on our own. (duh) 
2. Link to other articles. It makes your writing more valuable to a reader who may not know your topic well enough to find the “good” writing, but also improves our blog’s search ranking. 
3. Being open to other people’s ideas (in my case, product and market strategies) helps you grow professionally. I read a lot. I often bring what I read into my work (and frankly, into my training… but that’s another story). Sometimes I bring it in successfully, sometimes, not so much. Either way, it keeps my brain from getting too set in a particular way of thinking or approaching problems.

One of the most practical and useful books I’ve ever read on a topic was Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers. I highly recommend it still as a must-read guide for people who want blog successfully.

So, that said…

I’m off to Peru in about 3 weeks. When I return, I’m going to make more of an effort to read and comment more, and involve myself in the conversation more than I have been. I’m going to track my readership more closely, and see if I can be more consistent and use my own advice to grow my readership.

This, by the way, also ties in nicely to my new role here at Progress. Apparently, I’m on an org chart somewhere, but my role is not yet announced, so I’m going to keep my mouth shut for the time being. I will say, I’m working on a couple of interesting projects, and am enjoying the change.

My colleague Julianna Cammarano has started blogging about Actional. Check out her first post. It’s about rodents (and she’s not talking about the competition). Julianna’s responsible for Actional’s product marketing, and I’ve learned a lot about how marketing can contribute from her, so I’m looking forward to her future posts.

Let me get this straight? You’ve not spoken to me in years and the best you can come up with is that?!? Well, then I’ll definitely accept your invitation.

Truth is, I accept all of the invites that come across like that, but I really notice people who take a few seconds to write something more personal.

We all want to stand out, especially on Linked In, where we connect professionally. Why not take this opportunity to start a more personal connection? To remind the person of something you shared and why you want to connect? Or simply show that you have an interest in the person enough to over-write the default invitation with something that reflects your personality?

Look carefully at the intersection of hardware and software in this picture.

The devil’s definitely in the details. And, it all falls on the shoulders of the Product Manager. Product Managers own the mundane task of product specifications, roadmaps, pricing, and so on along with product vision and direction. It’s also their responsibility to make sure it all comes together in a package that makes sense.

Take a look at the ATM photo I took at Bank of America the other day.

It’s really easy to see the two digital buttons on screen. Pick which deposit type you want… cash on the left, and check on the right. Simple.

Now, look at the hardware slots. I suspect it’s hard to read… there’s a slot for checks on the left, and cash on the right! Big deal? Maybe not except to the anal-retentive’s in the audience. But, sloppy. Yeah. for sure.

But think about the elderly or dimly-lit. It’s not obvious to check which slot to put stuff in. Hit the button the left, put stuff in the slot on the left. That’s the obvious choice. To me, it’s simply dumb to do anything else in the UI.

Here’s another one. Had a bunch of people connect to me this week on Linked In. It’s been a particularly busy week, but I like to keep my inbox clean. I won’t, however, delete the invitations until I connect AND write recommendations for people. Each time I got an invitation, I clicked over the person’s profile, and selected “recommend this person,” a very clear link to the top right of every profile. Each time, I saw the following:

I figured, Linked In was having trouble, and I’d come back later to write the recommendation. Today, about five days after I first clicked over… I scrolled all the way to the bottom of the page and saw what I was missing, the familiar “make a recommendation” panel… all the way at the bottom?

What’s it doing there? Why did they move it? And, it took me five days to find it!!! Total Product Management fail!!!

And to quote a very smart friend… “it’s like they haven’t tried the thing?!”

Exactly.

My days are full of Actional (I’d love to tell you how great we’re doing, but alas we’re a public company, and I can’t yet!) and my evenings Where’s Your Heart?. Things are moving at Where’s Your Heart?. Slower than I’d like, but moving. I’m learning a lot about me as I go! And, it’s a fascinating process.

I’d like to re-start my writing with some more about Where’s Your Heart?, the foundation I’ve setup. I’ll share the mission, the objectives, and some fascinating research in this area.

Where’s Your Heart?’s mission is to “improve our lives through altruistic living”.

Developing a succinct mission statement is interesting. I changed ours a little today. I saw NY Sports Club’s had the phrase “improving lives through exercise” on their employee badges — clearly, they like the rhyme and rhythm.

I had been working with the mission “improving people’s lives through altruistic living”, and after reading the NYSC badge I asked myself why the word “people’s”? That word is self-evident. What am I trying to say? I decided that one of the things that separates Where’s Your Heart? is that we’re not working in the abstract… improving someone else’s life (improving someone else’s life is a side-effect of our charitable efforts, it’s what differentiates us; I’ll save that for another post). We’re improving our lives with our activities.

Where’s Your Heart? operates in what’s real, tangible, and experiential. (It would be more accurate to say we will operate!)

Though, perhaps what we’re tapping into is not measurable. (Ironic, considering how often I rant about measuring things at Actional… this post, and that post.) And, that’s OK.

I also got some inspiration from a couple of articles I read this week that talk about how feelings spread socially. The first one is short, and maybe not so interesting, but I’ll include it to help you understand the breadth of the research going on in this area. The article is titled “Secondhand Blues” in Psychology Today and talks about how depression spreads between people, and the impact it has on children of depressed parents.

The second, an article in the NY Times Magazine titled “Is Happiness Catching?”, however was fascinating reading. I found two key points very interesting:

1. The naysayers in this article are disputing the research, not the findings. The findings that human behavior is contagious are well accepted (if completely unproven).
2. Using a model based upon these findings, the best way to lose weight by capitalizing on the social contagion aspects would be to diet with friends-of-friends; loose connections in your extended network.

These two things are at the core of Where’s Your Heart?’s mission and operating objectives (even though I hadn’t read the research before this week — I’ve got friends in high places!).

I believe that the good feelings we get when doing something good are real, that they can be shared, and that when shared, they’ll improve our lives dramatically (and improve the world we live in… but that’s another story).

I also believe that social computing will break many of the current “metaphors” of what we identify with, and that by connecting around more meaningful things we share in common with others will change the world for the better. Instead of being grouped “arbitrarily” — by proximity, or nationality, or career, we can connect by common passions, beliefs, and causes on a more global level. Bringing people together and creating a common identity in a very personal way, will enable Where’s Your Heart? to meet our objectives and carry out our mission.

The objectives?

Where’s Your Heart? will help people create, sustain, and share that feeling (you all know what I mean, though we might describe it differently!). And, by doing so, we’ll accomplish the mission of improving our lives.

Oh yeah, and a side effect will be to help an awful lot of other people.

Crazy, right?

I had the opportunity to see Alan Alda host a panel at the World Science Festival in NYC Friday night. Because of the non-profit I’m launching, I was curious about the topic, “What It Means to Be Human: The Enigma of Altruism”. I learned a lot.

I would like to share a bit more of what I’m doing since the panel touched the related topic of altruism. In fact, since I wrote the first draft of this post, I saw a tweet that said something about needing to find a better word for charity. I think altruism is it. We can then refer to altruistic lifestyles or altruistic living (people who live an altruistic life).

Did you know that Charles Darwin worried that the existence of altruism would wreck the theory of evolution?

(I didn’t.)

Once pointed out, it kinda makes sense. If we evolve along the lines of survival of the fittest, then anything that doesn’t help an organism survive should be among the first characteristics to disappear.

The panel discussed three ways to account for altruistic behavior, but their reasoning didn’t satisfy me. It seemed to leave something out. And, this omission, coincidentally, is what my company is about, so please read on.

The three ways to account for altruism were:

1. For the good of the genes… meaning, an organism would somehow know that it’s related to another, and to help related genes survive would cooperate towards its survival. (I have an objection to this whole line of reasoning. Consider the fact that we’re killing the planet, and yet without it we’ve got a real survival challenge.)
2. Direct reciprocity, meaning though I don’t get a direct benefit by helping you, I can expect that you will in turn help me in the future.
3. Indirect reciprocity. Even though I may not have an expectation of you helping me in the future, if I help you, we build a culture of helping other people, and eventually that help will work its way back to me.

What about doing something just because it makes us feel good? Do we? Or, do we always have some ulterior motive, hoping to get something in exchange even at some point.

Is this good feeling we get when we do something good/altruistic important? I suspect scientists simply ignore it as unquantifiable emotion. Something that doesn’t really factor into hard-science.

However, in looking for something hard, these scientists are ignoring the obvious. Indirect reciprocity is not only about some benefit in an indistinct future… I believe the good feeling itself is a direct reward that motivates this behavior.

I also believe that particular good feeling we get when helping others as part of a “human community” is quite important.

Have you ever had an experience that sharing has made bigger? I have.

Have you ever come into a conversation with a group of people talking about something positive, and simply felt better? I have. (Unfortunately, the opposite is true too!)

Humans are pretty unique in this area of altruism (though not totally… one panelist kept bringing up marmasets as another example). Behaviorally, we actually have a sense of “we” that enables us to get along even if we don’t know the other person.

It turns out, “Indirect reciprocity catches fire in humans” and that  “language is critical to this.” I think language is the first tool to help reward social behavior, but that technology has evolved to take it to another level. I truly believe social computing, while in its infancy, is a world-changing paradigm of the significance of language.

We’re going to use technology to bring people together for altruistic purposes.

In my opinion, “technology will accelerate indirect reciprocity.” And, I believe this is important not because indirect reciprocity is about some possible benefit received in the future. I believe the good feeling itself is critical and sufficient reward.

Together, we’re going to remember our hearts in our daily lives, which is reward itself.

The panel mentioned that “compassion is the essence of altruism.” I like that. I believe compassion is another step along the evolutionary path, and therefore that good feeling we get by being compassionate is “evolutionarily important” as it points us in the right direction. The high we get is like a drug, rewarding us for the evolutionarily important behavior of “doing good.”

Remember how President Obama made everyone feel? Every voter that cast their vote for him felt like they were changing the world. One vote cast individually, counted together. Changed world. Simple. And all he was doing was running for president.

This is our mission. Bring people together through altruistic living to be a part of something bigger than any of us can be alone.

I believe our cultural value system is experiencing a major shift. We are materialistic and have an extrinsic reward system. We measure our success in title, salary, and the size of our TV. With falling portfolio values, limited job opportunities, and no sign of a return to anything else in sight, either we’ll continue to have very low self worth, or need to find another way to measure worth.

We’re not only going to value this good feeling we get through altruistic living, we’re going to actively generate it. Yep, that good feeling. That’s our output. That’s our measure. People are going to find that it’s infinite. That the more good that’s shared, the more generated. The more generated, the better we all feel. By bringing this into our daily lives, we’ll replace the worry and crappy feelings we get when thinking about our sinking material worth, with happiness and positive feelings about the altruistic community we’re belong to.

And, that’s what Where’s Your Heart? is about. It’s about improving people’s lives through altruistic living.

If you’ve read this far, thank you. Here’s a take-away. Next time you’re stressed out, at the end of your patience, grumpy, and about to take any of these things out on someone else. STOP! Then ask yourself “where’s my heart?” Get your mind into your chest and find it. How does that make you feel? If it’s been a while, you might need some help. As a booster, think about that unconditional love your children throw at you as you walk in the door. We’re conditioned to respond to that. Writing this article in the cafe, I can’t help but smile picturing my nieces running up and hugging me as I walk in for a visit. That’s the energy we’re going to tap into and bring to the forefront.

It’s not a side-effect of life. It is life itself.

PS The title of this post came from a documentary Alan Alda / PBS are releasing on November 9th on PBS titled “The Human Spark”. It was previewed by the panel, and looks quite interesting. Mark your calendars.