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SMI provides social media intelligence, insight and news for business executives. Case studies, opinion and best practice research. This is a great little presentation on social media blunders in the past few years.
As we are stuffed on Thanksgiving and think about the things that we are thankful for, I have to commend the men and women of Local Wisdom who everyday come in and kick-ass at what they do. I’m thankful everyday that we not only have some of the brightest and talented group of people around, but we live and work within a culture that words cannot explain.
Only 45% of Americans are happy with their jobs. I’ve had jobs where as soon as I walk in, I couldn’t wait to leave. I believe and hope that’s not the case with people who work with us. If anyone finds this to be false please contact me immediately.
Here are a few ways how we’ve built up to this and keep it going
1. We are picky on who we hire.
Everyone in the company has some say in who we hire. This means that you need more than talent to work with us, you need to have a personality that everyone can jive with. So if you’re coming in for and interview you should know that you’re being watched by everyone (no pressure). This way everyone has a hand in shaping the community and it’s not a top-down approach.
2. People are multi-faceted
LWers not only need to be talented in their main area of focus, but they need to be talented in a few other areas as well. For a small business such as ours people need to be able to fill gaps and help when their co-workers get swamped. This not only helps to keep people billable but promotes teamwork as “we have each others back”. just a point to mention, we don’t have a “bench” because no one sits out at any point.
3. We are quick to relinquish control
Now more than ever the owners or the company are giving the controls to the people. This should not only alleviate our workload, but give the people something to build and passionately support. I’m proud of what I’ve created, but I’m more proud of what my people have created.
4. Give people room to play
The human brain becomes retro-active after 20 minutes of continuous thought. We have gaming consoles, board games, poker chips, whiteboard comics, an extensive DVD collection, and the likes. You’ll also find that within every LW meeting there will be laughter and silliness at least every 20 minutes. This comes naturally to us and works well to stimulate the brain cells and blood flow.
5. Give honest rationale
Trust is probably the biggest component of any type of relationship. Trust comes from being forthcoming and honest. In every job I’ve ever worked people would question their upper management. They wouldn’t understand why certain decisions were made and we all know how people dislike what they don’t understand. The truth is business decisions are often complex and affect more than one area of the business. It’s like a giant Rubik’s Cube, make a change on one side and you affect 3 other sides. We give people the honest reasoning why we make the decisions we make. This gives people understanding as well as grooms them to an executive way of thinking.
6. Work life balance is important
We have deadlines for deliverables like Wireframes, copy decks, beta sites, designs, etc, but none of these things are as important as a spouse, children, or health. Keeping our employees healthy and their families happy is important. If someone is mentally strained from home or health they won’t be 100% and we can’t afford half-assed work. If people aren’t feeling well, give them some recoup time. If they’ve been working too hard give them some off time. A happy home is a happy person. We know how it goes otherwise.
Well, those are a few of the things we do. If you have any other philosophies that help you or any advice, pop in a comment.
Enjoy your holidays!
Great presentation on using Keynote for wireframes by Travis Isaacs. We’ve been using Omnigraffle for the UX / Design team at Local Wisdom, but things might soon be changing. I personally would love to make some higher-fidelity wireframes for our projects, and I think this is a great way forward..
The other day I was talking to a friend who is in the process of starting up a business. It is an event-production business, and, from the brief conversation we had, was primarily going to be referral-based. She wanted a website, and found someone who was willing to give her something for free or cheap.
The problem is, she didn’t like their work! So she asked me if I would be willing to change and tweak it once it was finished. I thought for a second, and then told her bluntly: “You are heading down a bad path.”
Why? Because she would be putting a great deal of time into getting a product out there that wouldn’t be the best it could (and should) be. Because the money and time she does have should be spent on getting referrals and business going. Because what’s the point of making a website that won’t be updated and will have to be redone in a year?
So I told her a radical idea: “You don’t need a website right now. Use free services to promote your business. They are out there. The web is a different place than it was just a few years ago.” For a referral-based business on a shoestring budget, I gave her the following suggestion:
So that’s that….you can use all these free services to get started and turn your business idea into a perfectly humming machine, where you are connecting with people via Foursquare, Twitter, and Facebook until the time, and money, is right for a custom website. Then we’ll talk…. ;)
The Triumverate - Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook
Please forgive me for not showing the love to our October and November Super Stars!
Birthdays
Laura Kathiari 10/12
Laura Hanania 10/15
Xiomara Serrano 11/10
Melissa Penta 11/17
Anniversaries
Xiomara Serrano 10/1
David Kroth and Steve Dimeglio 10/2
Ed Roney 11/2
Maggie Wang 11/1
It’s time for our family to grow.
2010 has been a great year for Local Wisdom, and 2011 is looking even better.
We are on the lookout for talented, fun and dependable Internet-folk in Central New Jersey to join the Local Wisdom team.
We are seeking freelances (and if all goes well, eventual fulltimers):
If you, or anyone you know is looking for work in interactive design, development, or project management, please get in touch with us at resumes@localwisdom.com.
Ran into this today, I had changed the setting in the web.config to this:
<httpErrors errorMode=”Detailed”>
And was able to fix it by changing it to:
<httpErrors errorMode=”Custom”>
The detailed view will always fire the IIS default pages. Found the solution here:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1553451/problem-with-getting-custom-errors-to-display-on-iis7
Love that they have all the user’s in their regular work clothes, plus one guy takes a call while playing the game. Just plain clever! Like it says, there’s a soldier in all of us! Even Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel get into the game :)
Is this how you feel after dealing with your internal IT team? Over the years and the numerous clients I have encountered, many if not all are unsatisfied with their IT support. From a communication, leadership, and innovation perspective they are lacking what clients need.
How do I know you make ask? My clients have told me this directly and I have experienced it first hand working as liaison for my clients. I have been in meetings where IT comes unprepared and is making excuses for the lack of progress on a project. They have tried to bamboozle me, but little do they know I used to code AND I have a B.S. in Computer Science so I know what you are trying to do!
Our clients at times have been given a mandate to use internal IT but when they are unable to be cost effective and meet deadlines what are they supposed to do? Bonuses, raises, etc are based on some of these deliverables yet IT doesn’t seem to get it? Why has this become the standard?
Outsourcing you say? Oh yes outsourcing. I have yet to see it work in large companies. I am not saying it can’t, I just haven’t seen it work yet. Bottom line yes, there are cost benefits but with poor communication, lack of understanding corporate culture and being distant from the company mentally and physically how do you effectively provide support? If timelines are longer and the end product is not meeting the business needs doesn’t that cost more?
We all know I could go on an on but I will get back to the topic.
Why are we better?
1. We partner with you to meet your needs
2. We treat you with respect
3. We deliver what we promise
4. We are accountable
5. We are knowledgeable
If you are tired of dealing with your IT team and want a change give us a call at 609.269.2320. Take look at our portfolio for some of the work we have done.
