The smartest brains in business 2010 and beyond !!!!

I have the pleasure of being included in a ebook about my views on the world in 2010 and beyond, alongside Caprice and Sarah Beeny my life is complete if you want to see what my thoughts are and more go here…

Research Module – Yuwei Lin – Survey’s – Good or Bad ?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of carrying out research using online questionnaires and other online research methods ? Thats the question we have been posed in our December Research Lecture, and not something I had really thought of before, mainly as I don’t do surveys online as find them irritating and not focused on my interests, so hear are my thoughts on that question.

Advantages:

• Cheap, free, or very low price point to create a online survey/questionnaire
• Anyone can set one up, low knowledge required from the tools available to organise.
• Changes can be made constantly, look and feel of them can be adapted.
• Data output, simple, concise and clean.
• None intrusive, either you want to answer or not, partake or not, its your decision.
• Don’t have to reveal identity if taking part.
• No bias, no one can sway the participants answer from a human interaction aspect.
• Questions are the same for all.

Disadvantages:

• Annoying and a pain to answer, say will take five minutes and take 50 minutes.
• Are people answering correctly, or telling you what you want to hear.
• Random answers or just tick as quick as possible, to get the survey done.
• Limited by who you know, if only have a small contact pool then not a large representation.
• Can’t ask what a question really means, the participant may need further clarification and there is no help.
• Response rate will be low, lots of people don’t even open the request.
• Identity, who are the people responding, cant go back and ask them further questions.

Survey’s and the tools available are helpful, sites such as www.surveymonkey.com help enable people to create questionnaires and surveys to take a poll of a participant base, but without the true understanding of how to structure the survey and qualify the questions, I feel the data collected would be limited in its value, and without the ability to go back and re ask or check the responses, limits that data even further.

Personal Branding – A great Post

To Thine Own Brand Be True: A caution on the concept of Personal Branding | Psychotic Resumes

To Thine Own Brand Be True: A caution on the concept of Personal Branding

By Ron Marks | Published: September 3, 2009

http://ronmarks.posterous.com/to-thine-own-brand-be-true-a-caution-on-the-c

Note from Nick Armstrong: Today we have a guest blogger, Ron Marks.  Ron is a Gen-X’er who is highly respected in the Fort Collins area.  He wanted to share with you his thoughts on the concept of Personal Branding.  There is some adult language – but, in comparison to some of my previous posts, it’s pretty mild.  Enjoy!

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“Personal branding: how we market ourselves to others.”- Dan Schawbel, Personal Branding Cheerleader

“A man’s true purpose is to find the path into his self.”

- Herman Hesse, novelist

My dearest Gen Y careerist, I am sure that, as many of you are job seekers or are beginning your careers, you have by now – or will shortly – be given the advice to develop your “personal brand.” That very concept should give you pause. Let me share with you why.

Personal branding is described by advocates such as the Personal Branding Blog as a process by which you “create your career and command your future.” “You will learn how to position yourself for success so that you become known for your passion and expertise. In the digital age, your name is the only currency….” Now, the first question is whether this is actually something new. Is this just fancy new jargon to describe something as old as putting on some nice clothes and brushing your hair before a job interview? If so, then you are just being marketed to, like the proverbial salesman selling an icebox to an Eskimo. But I believe that something in the above quote betrays the fact that this is a new concept of us and our roles in this society.

What does the word “brand” add to the former concept of “reputation.” Our name and reputation, our set of skills, connections, and track record have always been what defined us in the job marketplace. That has always been our currency. What does the word “brand” add to the mix? The same thing it adds in any other marketplace. The elevation of a created identity over the product itself, where the image becomes the identity, where what people buy is the identity itself. (Think of the substantive differences between brands of cola, or jeans.) If you are a brand, rather than a professional with a list of skills, accomplishments, and connections, it is your image that you are creating and marketing. This image is not represented by any kind of packaging, by a logo. It is represented by how you sell your personality. This is the hidden risk I see in a concept that gets talked about as if it were no big deal, because when your personality is what identifies you and your “brand,” then there are consequences that don’t occur with the normal building of a professional resume.

This is a critique not just of the phrase “personal branding,” but of the very concept, and what it implies about our culture and society here in the US. People are using this phrase without realizing what the concept implies or what they are giving away. To say that I am a personal brand is to force me to reduce myself, my whole multi-dimensional self, to the economic dimension. This raises some serious problems for those who value authenticity. For if we allow this idea of personal branding to go to its logical conclusion, then every aspect of our personality, in our quest to know ourselves and become responsible, caring, autonomous adults is not questioned as to whether or not it is the real self – as opposed to the self defined for us by our parents and community, the one we are supposed to start to outgrow in adolescence – but rather whether it is marketable to some niche out there. Self-reliance and self-knowledge, always the most difficult of our Homeric quests in this life, are suppressed and superseded entirely. (In other words, in practice, the danger is that the marketing will distort the product.) Your worth can never again be found to have any inherent value, based on your own autonomy and self-esteem, but must from now on be based solely on social approval. I sure hope you liked high school. I suppose this is fine for those shallow enough not to question popularity and marketability as the ultimate measure of your life.

And you can’t resolve it by saying that personal branding is actually quite empowering, that it’s all about leadership, about building your “Tribe.” Bullshit. Not when everyone is forced to compete as a fucking “brand.”

What this concept signals is the ultimate in economic insecurity, where we all collectively agree to reduce our personality and our value to the gods of consumerism, and let our “tribe” – our potential employers and bosses – see our Facebook page. Privacy gone, growth becomes about developing a sale-able personality, and branding becomes wishing it won’t be me to fail in this supposed meritocracy of “brands.”

This goes to our notions of success and failure in this country. The reason why I view the concept of personal branding as detrimental to our grown-up responsibility to strive for some measure of self-knowledge and authenticity is because of how strong this other concept is in US society: the concept of meritocracy. We already live in a culture that believes we live in a uniquely meritocratic society (despite having far less social mobility than many other industrialized nations – as always, our myths outpace reality by quite a lot). Which means we already live with quite a high degree of pressure. I just recently witnessed a talk by Alain de Botton where he quite brilliantly explained this, making the key powerful point that totally turned my own thinking on personal branding. He said that in a meritocracy, you’ll believe that your position in life is merited and deserved, which makes failure more crushing. Rather than being unfortunate, you are now a loser. What happens when you take this cultural myth of meritocracy, and then say to people, “Your success or failure in life will depend in large part on how you market your personal brand.” People will focus on their personal brand. In fact, it will generate a new line of self-help books. As it has. And branding will take preeminence over substance.

Personal branding is also an extension of the ethos demonstrated and articulated by George W. Bush in the aftermath of 9/11 when he famously told a (finally) introspective and ready-to-sacrifice nation to go shopping. If we are consumers rather than citizens (and money rather than majoritarian interests determines policy), then of course we are brands rather than self-determining beings. Wake up! You, sir, were mistaken to think that you are an autonomous self seeking meaning. You aren’t a citizen with human rights and responsibilities. You aren’t a contributor to culture. You are a consumer, nothing more, and your only creations and productions judged to be of value are economic. Don’t think you can create your own self on the side, for you are a brand. Someone who matters – a consumer of your brand, the owner of your soul – is watching, viewing your video or status update, reading your blog post.

You see, this is the real risk of where the ethos of personal branding and the self as consumer leads. Self-censorship. Self-censoring does not lead to flourishing, to diversity. Where marginal differences in image are what make or break a product, you and those around you will be engaging in a whole lot of image/reputation micromanagement, which means that aspects of your personality that don’t lead to a marketable advantage will tend to be self-censored. Your image, and therefore, your personality, will have to be managed to a fine degree to create this marginal competitive difference.

Nor is there any utopia about how your authenticity will be appealing as your brand. The truth is that the authentic personalities of the charismatic few sell really well. They are called celebrities. For example, when Gary Vaynerchuk talks of his social media success, of the success of his “brand,” he time and again talks about how he was just blessed with his particular DNA. Now, I am aware that the delusion that we can all be celebrities – Reality TV, for example – is so widespread that unless Orwell was right in protesting that sanity is not statistical, then I am certainly in need of joining the medicated masses of the US. But if you will grant that celebrity necessarily means a few will be loved by many (kind of definitional), then it is apparent that the rest of us will find very small audiences for our authentic selves, and not purchasing audiences either. These audiences for our “brand” will be identical to those we used to call “family” and “friends.” But I’m worrying about a mute point, because fewer of us will be seeking authentic selfhood anyway. We’ll be looking for our marketable selves.

We all live in the economic dimension as one of the dimensions of our lives. We must work to eat, to contribute to community, and to in fact be ethical beings. And we have always needed to develop marketable skills to survive or thrive and be of value in this dimension. But there was always something – call it a soul, a self – that could, sometimes, remain untouched, have non-economic dreams, and be explored. What the concept of personal branding does is says that you must now not just develop marketable skills that to a greater or lesser degree conform to your authentic self, but must also develop a marketable SELF! The supplantation of authenticity and autonomy by marketability. And the newest self-help gurus of personal branding are cheerleading this along. Life, personality, authenticity, no longer multi-dimensional, but flattened, subjugated to one dimension. Welcome to the machine, son.

To close, I’d like to ask whether one can use personal branding, and then transcend it. I’d like for us to look at a particular person who has done very well for himself through marketing his personal brand. He began as a community organizer with ambitions of helping the community, and ultimately of changing the way politics are played in this country. He wanted to prioritize Main Street over Wall Street, majoritarian concerns over monied interests. He became Brand Obama, a brand offering hope, transformational leadership, and an end of “politics as usual.” The campaign was a marketing campaign, like all of our political campaigns, focused on brands rather than substance, and Brand Obama won, beating out other established and powerful brands, such as Clinton, and then Republican. Brand Obama won. Brand Obama made history. But Obama the president, and more importantly, Obama the person, is facing a specific problem at the time of this writing. Health care reform is mired in turmoil, with nuts carrying automatic weapons to rallies, following just a few weeks behind other wackos getting plenty of media coverage for conspiracy theories regarding birth certificates and Hawaiian newspapers. But that’s not his problem. (Clinton faced a lot of weird media stuff when he pushed for health care reform.) Obama has recently seen his poll numbers drop by ten points in just a week. That’s a lot, but it’s not his problem. His problem is highlighted by where he lost support, and why. Obama lost the most support from Democrats, liberals. And he has lost support because he is not living up to Brand Obama, the brand that was to transform the politics as usual into something more about real reform. Obama has lost support because those who bought his “brand” see bailouts to Wall Street without any real reform, and they see concessions being made on health care, and with his softening on the public option, they see fading hopes of real reform here either. The hopeful are becoming disillusioned. Now, I can’t know what’s in the head of our president, but I view his tale as cautionary. If you promise people a slogan (whether it be “change you can believe in” or whether it be the slogan you establish for your brand), you are building expectations. Being able to deliver is not just about intentions. It is also about knowing what you can deliver. It is about self-knowledge. We have before us a man who became a brand. And what is being questioned now is his integrity as a self. What did he intend to do, and what will he actually do? Can he transcend a marketing campaign, and deliver to meet the expectations created by his brand?

More importantly for us, can we?

Comments on Ethnographic – Im spying on Kate

So following on from my post on Ethnographic observations, ie people watching I thought I would go and review what Kate had written and observed, and much to my sadness she has let me down and people watched at the Gym, I now feel I need to make the effort to get out and exercise )

I have only attended a gym once in the last two months, and in the daytime, so not a lot of data to go on but from what Kate observed here are my thoughts.

At my gym, the age group is mainly late 30s and male, there was only one women who was exercising, and she was using the treadmill whilst most of the men were on the fixed weight machines. As per Kates observation, about 90% of my fellow gym people used their own headphones and looked at the TV in front of them, even though it was daytime afternoon tv, it seemed human habit more from my observation to watch the tv.

I couldn’t view a mixed set of times, as Kate did but I assume that some of the people there were regular visitors as they looked comfortable in the gym and knew how to use the equipment and talking to the staff as well. Staff were around, to help with equipment and again, knew some of the people training or seemed to have spoken to them before in the way they behaved towards them and myself.
Interesting observations from Kate in regards to the Gym, a place I don’t frequent that much and I like the check back on the name, being greeted by your first name is company policy, not just a polite aspect of the staff, which Im sure it would be, but more the fact Kate observed it, but there was a reason behind it.

Brook Project – Update Young Peoples Survey

Update re Brook Street project – Questions for distribution to Young People

• Is it better to have films that just give you information, or do you prefer some ‘plot’ so that the information is part of a story or example situation?

• Should this information film, be totally or serious or is it okay to be a little lighthearted and have some jokes in there ?

• Would you rather get this kind of information from someone of the opposite sex, or would you prefer to hear about it from someone of your own gender?

• Do you feel there are aspects that shouldn’t be contained in the video ?

• Are there any religious aspects that you think need to be addressed/explained in the videos? (muslim/catholic perspectives)

Hopefully the feedback from these questions will give us some useful ideas as we further refine our approach to making the videos.

Brook Project – January 12th – still snowed in

So still snowed in at Pendle Hill so the first attempt to get to Brook met with both myself and Kate unable to get out of our house, luckily south Manchester wasn’t as bad for ice later in the week and Kate managed to get to Brook and meet with Steve and Cristina, and here are the notes from that meeting below, it was decided to gather input from a wider range of people and Brook staff to input into this project.

Here are the questions we’ve circulated to the staff:

We’re currently in the process of producing scripts and deciding on the style for the videos we’ll be making for Brook (see attached document for a summary of the videos to be produced). It would be really useful to have some feedback from staff regarding our ideas and the possible approaches we could take….

QUESTIONS:

• How far do you think these videos will be useful to you in your work?

• How do you think you’ll use the videos (it would be useful for us to know what settings they might be used in, e.g. on mobile phone when out and about, shown in schools / youth centres / to individuals or groups etc)?

• Are there any approaches that you think we should steer clear of (e.g. trying to be funny / being too serious etc)?

• What do you think we should do – what should we include to make the videos more useful to you / more appealing to the young people you work with?

• Are there any issues or concerns that you hear frequently from young people, which we might be able to address in the videos (e.g. what do people usually worry about when coming to Brook)?

• Do you have any concerns about using the videos in your work?

• Any other comments?

We’ve also posted this survey on SurveyMonkey so that the staff can respond online if they wish. I won’t post that link here, though, as it’s only intended for the staff themselves to answer.

At present Im also conducting wider research with outside agencies who have youth workers who have roles around sexual health, and outside of the Manchester area to give a broader input to the project, and bring in more opinions. Im also designing a short questionnaire that will be circulated to a selected set of young people, to collect opinions from the ‘target market’ across different social demographics as well.

Brook Community Project – Overview and Scope of Project – 18th December 2009

Due to adversse Icelandic weather conditions, Ive been unable to make it out of Barrowford for a meeting to Brook as of yet, snowed in, ice and what ever else could be thrown at us, has meant Ive been stuck at home, slowly going mad, so the notes here are from the meetings Kate has held and we have discussed afterwards.

We have been liasing via telephone, email and twitter so have had conversations, but I have had to use Kates not and unable to contribute to much to them due to not being able to ski.

I went to Brook Manchester this morning to meet Cristina and Steve regarding our community project to produce a series of web / phone videos for Brook to use for their clients.

ISSUES:

1. Selection of videos to produce:

We discussed the list of potential videos that Cristina had included in the initial brief, and, of the 7 options, decided to whittle the list down to 5 films to go into production.

The chosen films, selected according to Brook’s priorities, as well as to provide a range of experience for Kate and Stewart, are:

Condom demonstration v.1. – for mobile phone:

(Context – people must be given this demonstration as part of the registration process for a c-card – free condom distribution card)

This will be a straightforward visual demonstration, for use by youth workers out and about, often showing the video to young people via their phones. There will be no audio or captions.

Regarding distribution, Steve is currently surveying the youth workers to find out what sort of phones they have access to – whether they have bluetooth capability etc.

Condom demonstration v.2 – for web (c-card website) / PCs at Brook / use in clinics:

The bulk of this will be the same demonstration as above, but with descriptive voiceover, and subtitles. It would be desirable to include some narrative, possibly just via voiceover, at the start, e.g. a boy and girl negotiating over whether to use the condom.

This will be useful both for people to look at as a follow up to their clinic visit, or whilst attending, if they are uncomfortable with a live demonstration by staff.

Client journey 1 – Getting to Brook Manchester:

Audio and subtitles

Client feedback has demonstrated to Brook that people often find it difficult to locate the clinic, frequently only going so far up Lever Street, then deciding it’s too empty and Brook can’t be that far up.

This film will walk a client from Piccadilly Gardens to Brook Manchester, highlighting landmarks to look out for along the way (e.g. street name signs, Primark etc). Also film the outside of Brook so that people know where to look for.

Client journey 2 – Inside Brook Manchester (for web / PCs / plasma screen):

Audio and subtitles

Following on from the geographical journey, this film will show people what to expect once they get through the doors at Brook, from the sign-in process at Reception to their clinic appointment.

Voiceover / speech from the client, possibly interspersed with v/o comments taken from the experiences of real clients (e.g. ‘I was really nervous, but they were really nice’ / ‘I was surprised that I wouldn’t have to tell my parents I had visited’). Staff, e.g. reception staff to speak to camera, e.g. to reiterate that people won’t have to give any personal details at reception or say why they are visiting.

NB: Content can come from client feedback forms and Big Brother Booth research – Brook to collate

Pill demonstration (for web / PCs):

Audio and subtitles

cf. condom demonstration, straightforward visual demonstration with explanatory soundtrack and subtitles.

Types of contraception (for web / PCs / plasma screen):

Presenting the pros and cons of different types of contraception. Suggestion is to stage it as an informal (but scripted) conversation between a group of boys and girls, where each person supports a particular method, but someone else points out a disadvantage – then cut to a Brook nurse summarising the advantages and disadvantages of each.

The idea of this, and all videos, is to reinforce what’s being said in Brook clinic visits / outreach, but see it said by other people than Brook staff, and applied to real life.

Will need actors.

Audio and subtitles.

2. Resources available:

Brook have lots of comments from clients that have come from feedback forms, and also from the Big Brother-style video booth. They will collate this material to feed into script.

Brook will supply script ‘chunks’ for the demonstrations / formal information giving.

Look into sourcing new comments / client experiences as needed, especially around the client journey / finding Brook Manchester.

CAST: Brook staff / volunteers will appear in the ‘Types of Contraception’ conversation, and as themselves, as necessary in other films.

Actors from MAD Theatre Company, Moston (aged 16+) will play the clients in the Client Journey films, and can also help with voiceovers as needed. NB Kate has spoken to Rob Lees from MAD, and he’s keen to get involved. He thinks filming scheduled around Feb half-term would be fine.

3.  Research:

• Stewart will conduct some consultation to TAS pupils to determine any approaches that would completely put them off, see what they think would be effective etc.
• Kate will survey comments on existing similar online videos that Cristina has sent through, to find pointers
• Kate and Stewart will present the project / suggested approach to Brook staff at a staff meeting on 7^th January 2010, at 10am, and gather input / feedback from them.
• Kate and Stewart will present findings / chosen approach to tutors and fellow students on 15^th January 2010 (as part of assessment for Research Skills module) and pass any useful feedback back to Brook.

4. Scheduling:

January 2010 – Brook to collate comments / script material / K & S to plan out filming – filming schedule and scripts to be completed by end of January.

February 2010 – Filming (esp around half-term). NB Filming AT BROOK can only happen when the centre is closed (open 12-7pm weekdays, 11-4 Saturdays, 12-3 Sundays).

March 2010 – Editing

April 2010 – Premiere, feedback from TAS / other young people (sourced through Brook) and Brook staff. Kate and Stewart to look at future sustainability / possible toolkit material / basic training so that Brook staff can continue and make more films, and ensure that Brook staff are comfortable with using the videos.

May 2010 – Kate and Stewart write up project and hand in! Present final outcomes to Brook staff?

5. Other info:

Sting featuring Brook Manchester URL and C-Card URL to appear on all videos except condom demo for mobile (too small?).

Selected Brook staff to observe / help with filming process so that they can work towards making new films after this project finishes.

A word I can’t say – Ethnographic observation and the London Train

Ongoing learning is always something I would love to do more, and now Im partaking in my Masters it has given me a chance to explore and understand further experiences, and thus what I do every week has become a learning experience. Ethnographic observation method, is people watching and making notes with regards to this activitiy, fabulous indeed. For me I decided to choose my journey to London from the local train through to the Virgin express, to observe behaviours.

The Local train runs from Burnley to Preston and takes 35 minutes, whilst the Virgin Express runs from Preston to London and takes 2hrs 8 mins, Ill reference them as this in my blog post.

As the travel is a sitting down experience, the observations are limited but interesting indeed:

• DEMOGRAPHIC: A mixture on the local train, a younger age group teens – 30s, and a 70/30 split for M/F, whilst on the Virgin Express the age was early 30s to 50s and a 80/20 split M/F. I would put the differences down to the time of travel, as well as the use of the train, the local train early in the morning would probably be students and then the Virgin Express would be business people travelling to London.

• WALKERS: On the local train, people didn’t tend to move around a lot they sat and didnt stand up whilst on the Virgin train there was more walking activity and people pacing the carriages to purchase food or use the toilets. There tends to be more activity on the Virgin train, as people have more time to kill, and are looking for things to pass that time.

• INTERACTION: The local train is definitely a sit down, do not interact with anyone and get to your destination, whilst the Virgin Express people tend to communicate with each other, strike up a conversation, engage in eye contact, share magazines or newspapers. This was interesting to watch as it on average someone would move in the carriage I was sat about every 13 minutes, and there would be someone passing through the carriage every 7 minutes, so more opportunity to engage in dialogue than the local train, where I observed no movement in my journey.

• GENERAL OBERVATIONS: The local train was quiet, people reading the paper, not a lot of talking going on or mobile phone/laptop useage whilst the Virgin Express train had lots of conversations and noise going on, mobile phone/laptops out and being used constantly, general movement of people and conversations being stuck up to pass the journey. There seemed to be more comedy moments on the Virgin Express, I put this down to the length of the journey, people talking in their sleep, arguements over power supplies and the man that kept talking to himself about being a cow !!!

• TRAIN STAFF : As the local train has more stops and is reliant on the sales of tickets on the train, then the constant walking back and forward of the ticket salesperson waas more apparent than on the Virgin Express train, where I saw the ticket man once.

It was quite intriguing to carry out this exercise, as I do this journey every week and people watch as I work but to make note on it was good, but also found myself thinking about the privacy of the people Im watching, is this an invasion of their privacy ? Im glad I didn’t carry this exercise out on the last train home from London as it would have meant stories of drunken, loud people.

Personal Identity Posts – update

As per a older post, Ive been working to broaden my identity out from just being a Sun employee but to Stewart Townsend the person, thus now Im using my hosted WordPress server to deliver www.stewarttownsend.com this brings in my Twitter feed, and Lifestream into one place, where I talk and repost interesting subjects that I come across in work and pleasure.

Go check it out now, and see some of the content and posts there…

Chris Thorpe at Mixer – The New Raw Materials and Data Chemistry

Mashup Mixer hosted by me, but from afar

With pouring rain outside and no shirt from Stewart to brighten up the dark evening mashup* held it’s first Mixer* event. We learnt some lessons, i.e. don’t make the event so informal that you omit to give a start time for the keynote, do buy more beer and be brave – show outre videos from Youtube!

Chris Thorpe, @jaggeree,  gave a great talk entitled “The new raw materials and data chemistry” and kept us all mesmerized with his beautiful slides. Chris used to be a Research Chemist (who knew?!) and hence named the “Datalide” elements which  are impacting on “the way we do business, the way we vote …….. and the way we are”, as  Identium,Intentium,  Attentium and Locatium.

Watch the video and go get the slides from Slideshare, some great and intriguing discussion points in here around Social Media and impact, but how human behviour patterns are all just Social.