Nick’s Book Blog

As I mentioned earlier , Purple Cow is the second of Godin’s books that I’ve ventured into. While Permission Marketing was solid and worth the effort, the Purple Cow is inspirational to the point of making me sit in my car in the parking lot without turning it off. It very much articulates a philosophy that I very much identify with, by expanding on some of the ideas from Permission Marketing. Godin is an astute observer of trends in society and in business and is very good at reading people and figuring out why they do what they do. As I mentioned in my first Purple Cow post, according to Godin (and this passes the sniff test with me), the reason people act so herdlike is fear—but ironically, when people don’t take risks, their chances of failure are much higher. Here is a red-letter list that Godin asks us to pull over for and write down: 1. Don’t be boring 2. Safe is risky 3. Design rules now 4. Very good is bad Godin says, I think very rightly, that people want to be safe. Wha...

This is a fascinating article in today's WaPo . It's the kind of thing that the warm and fuzzy nonprofit types decry, but that actually makes a difference. I think it's awesome, and it's very much in line with Carnegie's philosophy for philanthropy.

We've been talking a little bit about the lobbying scandal, ASAE's position therein, etc. I found this editorial from the Philadelphia Inquirer this morning, which seems to take a fairly balanced approach to the whole situation, wrapped in the context of Santorum's role in the new proposal.

From Bubble Generation , this story is relevant to those of us who work with professional associations, even if it is presented here as a problem in the great white north. I would love to look into this further.

This looks like it would be a great seminar. And free too! Too bad I'm not in Cali or I would go.

Not sure what to make of this, but here is my result. Thanks to Dr. Helen for the link . You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do. Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

I found this interesting new Pajamas Media blog via Instapundit . The blog's subject is the "China Syndrome" aka "sucking up to China." Now, for me the topic isn't on my front burner, but I do witness the phenomenon right here in the association community via the ASAE's International SIG. I have to snark on this one, that listserv really bugs and I'm subscribed at this point out of a sort-of rubbernecking ethos.

Interesting article from one of Ben's cohorts at the New York Society of CPAs.

This came across Signal v. Noise yesterday. Highly useful model . Use it!

So, as a follow up to my lengthy and comprehensive synopsis of Permission Marketing (LOL), I'm venturing into the next Godin book, The Purple Cow. I think I first heard about this book in ASAE's magazine, Associations Now , although clearly I'm out of the loop because Mr. Godin has this huge cult following. Here is a great taste of it from Fast Company magazine. Full disclosure, these are my notes from listening to the audio version of the book. I have a subscription to Simply Audiobooks and they send me CDs to listen to, Netflix style. I like the service, but so far a couple of the CDs have been scratched, and therefore, they skip some. So that is a bummer, especially when I'm all excited to have a new book to listen to during my commute. Anyway, back to the topic of The Purple Cow. Why the Purple Cow? It's an object lesson. Godin tells the story of his family's trip to France, where they saw many "picturesque cows" (interesting adjective to use f...

I made this sign this morning from this neon sign generator . Thanks to the Generator Blog .

Here's an interesting bit from the Cato Institute here in Washington discussing the size and influence of associations and PACs in Washington and New York.

The McKinsey Quarterly has an excellent article on trends for the year , and for the next decade. Easy reading, and more encouraging than you might suspect. (Registration required)

Signal vs. Noise has an awesome meta-report on the cultural phenomenon we call staff meetings. The study they quote definitely articulates problems I've seen, and perhaps even contributed to!

Being emotionally intelligent is easy except if it's hard. That's why we have books to teach us such things. To be truthful, I picked up this book just to see what the "Four Key Emotional Skills of Leadership" are. Here goes: 1. Identifying how all of the key participants feel, themselves included 2. Using these feelings to guide the thinking and reasoning of the people involved 3. Understanding how feelings might change and develop as events unfold 4. Managing to stay open to the data of feelings and integrating them into decisions and actions. Jossey-Bass has a sample chapter on their website . Anyway, this is the model put forward by David R. Caruso and Peter Salovey . So, in the past--what would you say?--five years or so, emotional intelligence has been all the rage. Basically, though, it boils down to "don't be a jerk." Know what I mean? But we have all kinds of jerkiness left over from the days when the foreman ruled the masses at the factory, a...

Here's a post I found over at PicoBusiness . This article collects a series of posts from Scott Maxwell on how to win in the big company versus the little company battle. Although these tips are aimed at small business, they are 100% applicable to associations and small nonprofits if we will just take notice! One point that's made is that it's important to leverage your time advantage in a small operation. From some of the nonprofits I've worked in, many people seem very hesitant to use that advantage and instead they take shelter in a more bureaucratic model--seems dangerous to me.

So, I have been promising a review of this book for several days. But I haven't quite known what to say about it. I think that since it's come out, it's become just plain old common sense. TV is going the way of all the world and people hate to be annoyed. This book talks about how you can get over those obstacles. It's a turn of events that's good for small business and small organizations with limited resources. It's probably not as good for big corporations unless they can manage to get over themselves. So, what does the book say? I have found a couple of links that do a good job explaining the process. Here is one from a copywriting blog . And here's a follow-up interview with the author, Seth Godin , in Fast Company magazine. By Seth Godin ISBN# 0684856360

Did you see Ben Martin's post on Association Hacks where he's pulling a page out of Life Hack's playbook? Well I don't know if this counts, but I found this nifty little website (paid for by our tax dollars mind you--so use it!) that will make a quick and dirty, yet pretty graph for you. Much easier than Excel if you've just got to throw a graph together w/o proceduralizing anything.

I got that word from this article in WaPo's business section today . Decent article, but other than using that word, I have no further comment on the piece. I will still get around to Permission Marketing yet. I have my notes all recorded, I just have to upload them. Anyway, I wanted to just mention an audio lecture I heard in my car while attempting to cross the Wilson Bridge this morning. It's a lecture entitled "America's Great Third Sector," given by Diana Aviv , to a group of people at the Chautauqua Institution . Aviv spoke very articulately about the challenges and the successes of nonprofit voluntary agency's and her focus was surprisingly positive. So often when people talk about nonprofit issues they get into this handout mode where people whine and complain about what the government isn't doing for them, how ever since Reagan things have been turning south yada yada. None of that with Aviv, and I was highly impressed with her forthright, empowe...

From Life Hack, here's some tips for those of us who try to pull of professional looking stuff with little to no budget to work with! Anyway, busy 1st day at the new job. I think it's going to be lots of fun. I'm switching to audio books, at least during my commute. (I think the people on the beltway will appreciate that don't you?) So tomorrow, look forward to my write up of Seth Godin's Permission Marketing .

Found this online from the Association of Information Technology Professionals . Seems to be a good resource lots of different organizations could customize. It's good to see people lay out volunteer information so cleanly.

I've been thinking about lobbying lately, as has just about everyone it seems. Since I'm a member of the association community here in Washington, DC, I have more exposure to it firsthand than many. I suppose there are some high-powered types who really peddle their influence, but I am concerned that this scandal will affect all the people who push good--or at least necessary--causes and who take pride in their work. I am concerned about "lobbying reform," which in my mind amounts to a circumscription on citizens' free speech. In my view, anyone can and possibly SHOULD lobby the government. Naturally, money is part of that process, even if you're only paying for your team's food at McDonalds. I very much agree with the point of view posed by Jan Witold Baran in today's Washington Post subtitled "Don't let one bad Abramoff spoil the whole bunch." I guess my reflection is this: the unethical/illegal activities have been spotted, and the sy...

From Biz Stone, we have this bit of wierdness . I'm a little slow on the uptake (the post is from New Year's Eve) but I know several people who would probably appreciate this technological innovation!

Here's a post from Emily Chang who talks about two new web 2.0 thingies that are geared toward education: Nuvvo and Newsvine . We association types had better realize this phenomenon is going on.

Here's some coverage on that from U.S. News . It says "government and nonprofit." I wonder what the breakdown is. If nonprofits are a significant portion of that figure, I wonder what kind of nonprofits they are.

First of all, what is the "third wave"? There's a treatment of the term and its origins here . This book which is published by the lovely people at Harvard Business School looks to be really good and really thorough. However, I don't have time to get through it as it's very technical and rich in schemata. (I like to use the latin plural , don't you?) I did want to note this paragraph where the authors, Jeremy Hope and Tony Hope, discuss Reichheld's loyalty business model . These studies could inform a lot more discussions on association membership than I think is the case. Based on an analysis of various service companies, Reichheld suggests that there are certain common features that determine longer-term customer profitability in the service industry. Specifically, by identifying and measuring six factors, companies can, over an appropriate time period that will vary from company to company and perhaps even customer to customer, form a clear view of the...

Interesting discussion of lobbying/advocacy at The Lonely Centrist . UPDATE: More at Skeptic Eye .

An article from the San Luis Obispo Tribune seems right on.

Have a conference call today with the ASAE scrimping group. Here's an article I found while trying to get ready. UPDATE: Well, I screwed that one up for two reasons: 1) it wasn't with the scrimping group at all, it was the training session for icohere; and 2) it's tomorrow. As the youth say, LOL.

I picked this book up because of its title. Now, the book's subtitle is "how modern intellectuals misshape our society." It's made up of articles written in the late 1990s by Heather MacDonald --and it reads like an Ann Coulter screed. So, if that makes you shriek in horror, this is fair warning. However, I do want to cover one chapter in particular which is called "The Billions of Dollars that Made Things Worse." In it, she chronicles the history of the foundation movement, with particular emphasis on Carnegie 's approach which held that the person who amasses excess wealth should use the same acumen in furthering societal good that he/she showed in earning it. Bill Gates seems to be informed by this approach in his quest to eliminate malaria in Africa and on other health projects in the developing world. That practice is referred to as "scientific philanthropy." The contention is made that current foundations, starting around the middle of l...

My life's as good as an Abba song. It's as good as "Dancing Queen."

Great new year's wishes from Creating Passionate Users.

Happy 2006 to everyone! I really like New Year's and the chance you get to just sit back and evaluate how things are going. It's a really healthy thing, at least for me. And I've not posted for a few days--notwithstanding I've been generating content in my head. On another note, here's an article on volunteer management from Phoenix's Arizona Republic . Interesting thing, volunteer management. Lots of people do it, but not lots of people are aware that lots of people do it...