Taking pictures at 18 below

On the way to work this morning I needed to stop and take a picture of a very cool transtop for our client virtuwell. Our team has created a petri dish that will grow in three different stages and we needed to capture stage two today before it changes.

So on the coldest day of 2011 at 7AM in the dark - and a chilling temp of -18F I was out taking pictures of some of our creative work over at the University of Minnesota this morning. And I like to do this for our clients and the PK team.

If you live in the Twin Cities and happen to go by some of our newest creative work for virtuwell by HealthPartners - let me know what you think. We are pretty proud of this work.

So what did you do this morning - the coldest morning of 2011 so far?

Cultivating a User-Centered Culture

Last night at the first MIMA session of 2011 it was Nancy Lyons and Meghan Wilker of Clockwork Active Media Systems talked about a user-centered culture.

Good discussion after a tough start with some technical glitches at the beginning - here were the main takeaways:

1) Define your values - this begins with leadership but involves everyone

2) Align hiring decisions with your values - job skills are table stakes

3) Communicate openly

4) Cultivate a sense of ownership - everybody owns the promises made

5) Find clients that align with your values -don't be afraid to say no

6) Listen - understand what they mean not just what they say

7) Treat the client as the expert - they are

8) Extend your values to your end product - be who you say are and it will be reflected

9) Don't allow "us vs. them" attitudes - be user-centric to the core

10) Communicate - you can't over communicate

It was interesting discussion with some basic premises on how to create a better culture in our organizations based on being focused on the end user. Sometimes we will lose sight of this end goal so this was a great reminder of how we need to think about our work.

Good start to 2011 for MIMA although the crowd was a little down. Must be the good winter keeping people in.

As I was driving away my main takeaway was the importance of building a culture built on trust. What can you do today to impact your company's culture? Think about it and just do it.

Do you answer all your messages?

OK this is a fair question - do you answer ALL the messages you get? Whether it's from someone you know or not? A voice mail message, an email, a tweet a Facebook post?

I try to and overall if I say so myself do a very good job.

However, I do find it irritating when people don't offer back the same professional or personal courtesy with a response? I mean it's not that hard to type back a response via email or Twitter or Facebook. But why do some people not respond?

Are they ignoring your message? Why for me I think that's the case. And both personally and professionally I think that's something that we should all work on to get better it. Ignoring a simple question really is not a truly professional response and especially from people who are communication professionals.

I speak for myself and I vow to answer all my messages in 2011 - how about you? And if not I'd love to hear why not.

Technology hits ordinary things

When you think of all the impact that the iPhone has had it is mind blowing. How the smart phone momentum has changed the way many of us live our lives professionally and personally.

I received a gift this Christmas that I never would have thought about for a smart phone user who has a touch screen key pad.

Here in the Upper Midwest it can get kind of chilly in the winter and to use my iPhone I have to take off my gloves. My wife has seen me do this many times. Having a great eye for details like that she got me some new 180s TecTouch gloves.

They have a couple of little metal pads on each thumb and forefinger of the glove. They are actually called "conductive fabric pods" and allow you to easily operate an iPhone without taking off your gloves. That's innovation for a pretty staid category.

Is this something that you would buy? I'll let you know how they work for me.

What's your word for 2011?

As we come to a close on the first business day for 2011 - I'd like to pose a question as to what will be your defining word this year?

What is the ONE word that will guide your journey through 2011.

Examples of this could be:

-Creativity
-Renew
-Invest
-Connect
-Passion
-Balance

OK you get the point. What is the one word that will define you in 2011?

My word for 2011 is "Authenticity". I want to focus on being real, true and genuine. In everything that I do professionally (and also personally) I want to true to who I am and not try to portray or communicate things that are no true to my soul.

So there it is - my word for 2011 is "Authenticity". What's yours?