The Importance of Purpose

Tweet The video below is an amazing presentation by Dan Pink and RSA Animate.  Dan's point is that by giving people autonomy, freedom to master skills and freedom to pursue an organizations purpose you will get much better results than by offering large financial awards for success.

What does this mean for Community Engagement incentives?  How should we be motivating people?



Interesting advice based on study from Dan Pink is "Pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table. Pay people enough so that they aren't thinking about money, they are thinking about the work."

Watch the RSA Animate Video to See
This Drawn Along with the Speech

Dan Pink says people work better when given "Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose".  He makes the point that people want to do a good job so if you get out of their way, they more often than not, will!  He makes the point that people seek to learn new skills.  As a boss you want your employees to be more skillful.  So, let people build new skills.  Finally as Gordon Gekko says "Greed is good" but Dan says when greed is not attached to the company's purpose "Bad things happen".

I took from this that PURPOSE and CULTURE are king.  Create a culture that is focused around purpose and people will keep the agenda moving forward.

Purpose needs to drive financial decisions.  Too often I have seen companies waste time and kill culture by not wanting to "lose" money on an investment.  Sometime the investment is dead software that they don't want to scrap because "We have too much invested already".  Other times it is employees asking to go to a conference to learn and connect with people and it is seen as a vacation or waste to supervisors or a burden on their time because they will need to find coverage.

Too often I have seen companies "save" money with decisions that didn't make sense to the supposed purpose of the company.  More with less is the concept many people are faced with each day.  But, when did this become the purpose of a company?  If the purpose of a company is great customer service and results oriented problem solving is an automated call center the right solution?  Just sayin!

What is your purpose and what is your primary driver?  Do they match?

Looking forward to your responses.
Cameron

Event Camp East Coast (#ECEC10) Blog Post List and Resources (Updated 01/02/11)

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Event Camp East Coast 2010 is really getting started on the virtual campaign now. Bloggers, journalists, commentators will all weigh in to help on-site attendees and virtually interested Event Professionals (#eventprofs) to enjoy, understand and refresh on all the great ideas shared and learned from Event Camp! 

For your referencing pleasure here is a list. As I find more articles I will update this post so please check back!

BLOG and RESOURCE LIST: 

1. LEAST Positive and MOST Positive of #EventCamp East Coast (#ecec10) by Cameron Toth (@Camerontoth)

2. Event Camp East Coast Home Page (Stay tuned for updates here from the #ECEC10 Team of @ASegar, @TraciBrowne and @Eventsforgood) by Adrian Segar, Traci Browne and Lindsey Rosenthal as well as guest bloggers

3. #ECEC10 What the Hashtag Page (Cool to find archive of tweets, top tweeters and other engagement statistics) by http://wthashtag.com

Interesting Statistics you will find on the #ECEC10 What the Hashtag Page are:

#ECEC10 Twitter Statistics for the last 7 days (Nov 10-Nov 16):

•                1,108 tweets

•                119 contributors

•                158.3 tweets per day

•                54.1% come from "The Top 10"

•                34.5% are retweets

•                78.8% are mentions

•                41.6% have multiple hashtags

4. 33+ Event Camp East Coast Attendees to Follow - Twitter list by Jay S Daughtry M.Ed. (@ChatterBachs)

5. The LETTER that sparked the onsite #EVENTPROFS conversation from the community founder Lara McCulloch-Carter

6. Is Confidential Content the Best Approach for an EventCamp Conference? by Michael McCurry (@MichaelMcCurry)

7. Event Camp East Coast Unplugged by Samuel Smith (@SamuelJSmith) 

8.  The Un-Conference: Participant-Driven Agenda + Mashup Networking = Relationship Building on Steroids by Howard Givner (@hgivner)

9.  EventCamp East Coast : The Un-Conference! by Debra Roth (@PinkDeb)

10. Commentary: Can Participants Speak Privately in an Online Meeting? by Mitchell Beer (@mitchellbeer)

11. EventCamp East Coast Series : Part 1 – Back to Basics by Eric Lukazewski (@EricLukazewski)

12. From Volunteer to Presenter: An Event Camp East Coast Unconference Story by Carolyn Ray (@Carolyn_Ray)

13. Yes! And . . . How Event Camp East Coast led me to own my dream by Jenise Fryatt (@JeniseFryatt)

14.  14 Personal Highlights from EventCamp East Coast by Jay S. Daughtry (@Chatterbachs)

15. Event Camp East Coast participants share their experience | Engage365 Blog by Jenise Fryatt (@JeniseFryatt)

16. BizBash | 5 Lessons for Conferences From EventCamp East Coast by Anna Sekula (@BizBash_News)

17. At EventCamp East Coast, Planners Explore "Unconference" Model, Discuss  Engagement Strategies by Anna Sekula (@BizBash_News)

18. Conferences That Work | EventCamp East Coast APPRECIATIONS by Adrian Segar (@ASegar)

19. YouTube - Event Camp East Coast November 2010 Highlights by Heidi Thorne (@HeidiThorne)

20. A Call To The #Eventprofs Community | by Adrian Segar, Traci Browne and Lindsey Rosenthal (@asegar, @traciBrowne, @eventsforgood)

21. Green Choices at Event Camp East Coast 2010 by Heidi Thorne (@HeidiThorne)

22. A little video of pictures from Event Camp East Coast by Jenise Fryatt (@JeniseFryatt)

23. My top eight takeaways from Event Camp East Coast by Jenise Fryatt (@JeniseFryatt) 

24. Undiscussed topics at EventCamp East Coast by Adrian Segar (@ASegar)

25. Flickr Photos: EventCampEastCoast

26. What I learned about event professionals at EventCamp East Coast by Adrian Segar (@ASegar)

27. A Conference Can Have Unexpected Personality  by Tracibrowne (@Tracibrowne)

I am quite sure there will be much more to come!!!  Check back often and please subscribe to my blog.

Please comment on what kind of blog posts that you would like to see about Event Camp East Coast 2010.

Thank you!  

Cameron

LEAST Positive and MOST Positive of #EventCamp East Coast (#ecec10)

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The PEOPLE have been fantastic, amazing and incredibly intelligent. Examples in the "Most Positive" below. We at #ECEC10 designed our conference yesterday and today. We have had one excellent session after excellent session. I have been extremely satisfied with learning sessions that were not set and designed before the conference. There were no pre-arranged speakers and that has been great! I have heard from attendees that I want to work with instead of talking heads that aren't relevant to me. An event that is focused around attendee feedback is a better event.

 Least Positive: The somewhat sadly populated conversation on Twitter. I like hearing from attendees on Twitter. But it has been difficult to tweet because of the incredible interactivity and engagement. It remains to be seen and I am sure folks will talk about the needed/not-needed "confidentiality" aspect of UNCONFERENCE at #eventcamp. This will be a major learning point without regard to the final group verdict. Negativity is contagious so please talk more about all of the successes than our failures.

 Most Positive: The PEOPLE have been fantastic, amazing and incredibly intelligent. Examples of intelligent people that have stood out to me: Lindsey Rosenthal (@eventsforgood) [great heart and passion], Adrian Segar (@asegar) [amazing event model], Sarah Weiss (@SAWeiss) [non-profit wisdom], Manpreet Wadan (@manpreetwadan) [Virtual World advocate that is passionate about attendee experience], Samuel Smith (@SamuelJSmith) [event planner that really uses technology], Eric Lukazewski (@ericlukazewski) [event design knowledge leader and social media expert], Debra Roth (@PinkDeb) [amazing marketing and design professional who is a pleasure to be around], Kiki L'Italien (@Kikilitalien) [An amazing personality and energy in every room she is in!], Howard Givner (@hgivner) [a business owner who shares successful strategies really well], Jenise Fryatt (@jenisefryatt) [an amazing event and social media professional]. I can go on but I feel like this is too many words. I will share more on Twitter.

 I have learned an incredible amount, in a short amount of time, about events, business, networking, event design and technology.

Harry Potter And The Transfixed Cameron

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Have you been hooked by Harry Potter?  Has J.K. Rowling with what seems like simple story telling reeled you into the world she has created where half giants, Centaurs, wizards and witches all freely exist?  I did not think it would happen to me.  After all, while I enjoyed usually the first go around with the Potter movies they were nothing to write home about.  You know.  Nothing I would pay Hedwig to carry a note off to one of my besties.

I was recently at a meeting of MPI and we were talking about Orlando, FL and the Harry Potter Theme park and eventually those books.  I said “they just don’t draw me in, I don’t see what the fascination is”.  My niece had the first book in the series and she happens to be a little young for it so hasn’t been enthralled yet.  I was reading the first couple pages and then I read a couple more.  Even though I had seen the movie I somehow was sucked in to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  And as you can tell I was eating my words as I fell down the rabbit’s hole!

I finished it in a couple days by downloading it on my Android phone and before you can say Professor Quirell I had downloaded Chamber of Secrets and was off to the races. 

So as this is a blog about education, social media and business I want to relate what I have learned so far from the Harry Potter books.

1. Create enjoyable mystery.

Many business models use this and you can too.  Do not over describe your product but describe it just enough that people are intrigued to know more.  Apple’s iPhone and Toyota’s Hybrid Prius are two good examples of mysteries that suck people in.  When conducting an educational meeting use the tool of mystery to keep people engaged.  When your mind is searching for an answer you will listen.  Ask questions and engage your audience!

2. Create characters.

From Mr. Dursley to Ron Weasley and from Professor Snape to Headmaster Dumbledore characters are what drive your interest.  They are what make you feel comfortable rooting for or against.  In your meeting create characters.  Be the woman in red.  Be the Social Media Geek.  Be a character and let people love or hate you.  It is better than not being interesting and not being noticed at all.  (There are some exceptions for example don’t be the person who doesn’t use deodorant)

3. Evil changes form all the time

I have also just finished “Dale Carnegies’ “How to Win Friends and Influence People” so a little of that amazing book has seeped in to this third lesson.  In our every day interactions evil can be coming at us from every direction.  We must seek the best in all people and that starts with who we look at in the mirror every morning.  If we conquer the negativity in ourselves (fear, jealousy, anger, etc.) it will be easier to see past it in other people.   If we remain alert to evil’s possible various forms within us we will surely be better prepared to see evil and put a sword through its jugular like Harry and the Basilisk.

Happy Reading!

Cameron

MPI World Education Congress 2010 Opening Session

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Emmanuel Gobillot was excellent in the Sunday, July 25 opening session of MPI's WEC 2010.  He came on after a resounding message about making a difference.  His message was clear.  Do not waste your time.  Your time on this Earth is limited.  What you do in this moment affects the next and what you don't do may affect you even more.

"Build the emotion that people don't forget." "Have I made them feel stronger and more capable?" Mr. Gobillot was speaking to the meetings community.  Meeting planners, suppliers and folks like myself.  I am engaged in the non-profit sector and I took these words to heart.  I am setting out the 2010-2011 school year and strategizing how to move 200+ students closer to a compelling education and successful futures.

"People are afraid to help or enjoy seeing others fail"... Emmanuel is right!  I see this in teachers and administrators.  I see it in support staff.  I saw it in my corporate positions. And unfortunately I see it in my students as well.  How can they not learn this when the culture is all around them.

My challenge is to get students not afraid to help each other.  For students to speak out without fear confident that they are helping and not hindering, confident that watching others succeed is the best thing for everyone!  It is not an easy task but Gobillot layed out a nice little blueprint:

Effective Actions = Conversations + Shared History

I have seen this work time and time again and it was great to see someone lay it out this way.  When people unite around common relatable themes that is when you see cohesion and effectiveness across the board, 100%, all the time!

Find the uniting themes.  Create shared moments of learning.  Engage your audience and make them feel stronger and more capable.  By doing that you "Build the emotion that people don't forget."

Congratulations to MPI for delivering a great opening session!  You can see it hear http://ow.ly/2gEC7