June 2009 Archives

When people talk about great work culture, the two company names I hear most often are "Zappos" and "Rackspace"--someone might even throw out that big old giant "Google," especially if discussing amazing perks like free child care and laundry facilities for all employees. One name you don't hear? "Facebook." It's one of the most referenced companies of the last five years, a cultural phenomenon, and yet, no one really knows much about the inside of "the mighty book of faces." Until now.

On June 15th, 2009, TechCrunch.com's MG Siegler enticed geeks everywhere with the title, "Behold! The New Facebook Headquarters." What follows is a collection of photos--and one twenty minute video--shot during the Facebook "open house," to which Siegler and others were invited. It's an interesting journey.

By checking out the post and the video, you get a good sense of how the company wants to be perceived by the media, and potential employees, but there's no work culture that's really palpable during this tour, which I suppose is reasonable.

Facebook appears to be creating a Zappos-style work environment in their new digs, which used to be owned by HP. Vaguely reminiscent of an Ikea store, the new Facebook campus has lots of interesting talking points, delivered by a tour guide who looks like he woke up and decided to go for the "emo" look that day:

• The building, which used to belong to HP, was originally wall-to-wall cubicles
• No cubicles now--all open workspaces and new-concept desks "designed for collaboration"
• Facebook likes to "capture intelligence" of coworkers by encouraging conversation between individuals so that others overhear their conversations (how social)
• The conference rooms downstairs are named after condiments and video games
• According to emo tour guide, an important part of Facebook culture are "Gribbsteaks," which he says is Facebook's interpretation of the "dot com era's" razor scooters

A funny moment occurs at 3:19 in the video where the guide compares trying out new things like desk orientation to how Facebook makes changes to their "product." He says, "we do this in the product a lot--we'll roll things out on a small scale, figure out what we actually think about it, and learn by actually getting real data, and then get bigger..." Ahh, yes. Like that whole "we own your content" debacle? Maybe they should apply this revolutionary process to the goal of becoming profitable?

On a more serious note, it does seem like the Facebook crew has put a lot of thought into creating a collaborative and modern work environment. Not really surprising, but we'll have to see if this effort also produces a unique and vibrant work culture like Zappos.

I'm pretty tired of hearing about the financial woes of huge companies like GM when there are many entrepreneurs and small businesses that never received bailouts struggling to stay afloat during these difficult economic times. While it certainly doesn't solve the problems so many people are facing, having a good laugh always helps a bit. This GM spoof video I found on Twitter (via @tcwsonja and @adfreak) is good for a laugh and highlights the ridiculous situation big, bloated companies are finding themselves in. It was produced by Current TV's InfoMania.

Nobody likes boring presentations. Even worse, boring presentations don't provide any value to viewers. If you're giving a talk or a presentation, don't bore your audience! Just follow some advice from Garr Reynolds and his Presentation Zen method.

Realize that your presentation is an opportunity to tell a story and impart some knowledge. Don't make people do the work of trying to figure out the purpose of your presentation. Tell them what it is.

Don't give it all away. This is perhaps the most important piece of advice: don't put your entire presentation, word for word, on the PowerPoint slide. Pick out the main points and then do the hard work yourself and speak semi-extemporaneously (you'll need to memorize a little). You can't ask the audience to get down in the trenches with you--they want a succinct presentation with key points illustrated on the screen in front of them, so give them that.

Bring some design to your presentations. No, you don't have to be a graphics guru, but try to stay away from using the cartoonish images that came with your laptop. That's a sin. Try iStockphoto, which usually has some good options that can add visual interest to your presentation. And while this does make more time, it's better than polluting your screen with massive quantities of text. People want to be enlightened, not overwhelmed.

Make transitions seamless. You don't want to look like you're doing a lot of work to make your presentation or you'll make the audience tired, too. One of the easiest ways to make flawless transitions in your presentations is by purchasing an Apple Remote if you've got an Apple laptop, or a mini slide changer if you've got a PC. Seems like a no-brainer, but I see a lot of presentations where people forget to do this and fumble around as they move through the presentation.

For more advice, watch the Presentation Zen video, part of the Google Talk series, below.

Resource, tips and tricks

• Control PowerPoint or Keynote with Apple Remote - My favorite is Remote Buddy
• Tiny wireless remote for PCs
• Know your audience before you get there, ask questions
• flickr and Google Image Search for free images
• Learn from Nancy Duarte, she teaches TED presenters

As soon as I heard about Emergency by Neil Strauss, I wanted it. In fact, it was the first book I pre-ordered on Amazon in a long time. It's 414 pages, but a quick read because it's pretty entertaining. There are some solid, positive messages in the book, too, such as Strauss' description of how he changed over the years he spent researching. According to Strauss, when he set out on the journey to survive just about anything, he was mainly concerned with making a quick exit from a disaster situation, but by the end of it, he'd become the first responder in a time of crisis--actually becoming an EMT.

Emergency is chock full of amazing resources. The kind of things you'd learn if you'd spent a lifetime as a cowboy or Bear Grylls from the Discovery Channel's "Man vs. Wild." And since I've always been fascinated by those shows where people are dropped into the jungle and have to find their way out, this sounded like the book for me, and it was. But please keep this at the forefront of your mind: these tactics and firearm training are for survival situations, not mindless violence. It's the kind of stuff you want to know when you have no other choice but to make your own "good luck."

If you don't feel like reading the book, I've compiled a list of the resources Strauss outlines. If you have read the book, this list pulls out the major outside resources referenced. This excerpt got my attention and maybe will do the same for you.

"Today I can draw a holstered pistol in 1.5 seconds, aim at a target seven yards away, and shoot it twice in the heart. I can start a fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together. I can identify seven hundred types of footprints when tracking animals and humans. I can survive in the wild with nothing but a knife and the clothes on my back. I can find water in the desert, extract drinkable fluids from the ocean, deliver a baby, fly a plane, pick locks, hot-wire cars, build homes, set traps, evade bounty hunters, suture a bullet wound, kill a man with my bare hands, and escape across the border with documents identifying me as a citizen of a small island republic."

Education

• Gunsite, AZ - Firearms training facility
• CERT - Community Emergency Response Team training
• Tom Brown's Tracker School - Tracking, nature and wilderness survival training
• onPoint Tactical - Urban survival, escape and evasion
• Krav Maga training - Israeli self-defense
• Volunteer Search and Rescue

Resources & Books

• The Sovereign Society
• The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy
• The Passport Book
• The Laundrymen by Jeffrey Robinson
• Nitro-Pak

There is a ton of information in the book and Strauss is an engaging writer. Maybe I will take one of these classes to satisfy my "learn two new things every summer" requirement. if I missed something or you have a better resource, let me know.

Interesting article from Luke Johnson at the Financial Times called, "Rough Diamonds Dazzle as Entrepreneurs." Luke's article is based on his own empirical analysis of the behavior of entrepreneurs. Based on his observations, he says entrepreneurs learn differently than other people, something I've observed myself time and again, both personally and professionally. He goes on to say that despite entrepreneurs' natural inclination to rebel against our very rigid system of education, many go on to lead successful, entrepreneurial lives.

What is it about entrepreneurs? Researchers aren't certain, but they've come up with several hypotheses. One of the scholars doing great work in the study of entrepreneurship is Saras D. Sarasvathy, Ph.D., at the University of Viriginia. In 2001, Sarasvathy wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review where she stated that entrepreneurs approach the world differently than your typical businessperson, who is likely to be classified as a "causal thinker"--or someone who has a goal and works within specific parameters and with available resources to achieve it. On the other hand, Sarasvathy says that entrepreneurs engage in "effectual reasoning" when looking at the world, shifting their focus from an absolute "end goal" in some cases, or drawing on different resources along the way. By engaging a wide array of resources and interacting with people outside their immediate social sphere, the process by which they achieve their goals also encourages innovation. In short, they're always thinking outside of the box.

Another very interesting fact about many entrepreneurs is that they--quite literally-- think differently. How so? Many very famous entrepreneurs have admitted to having learning disabilities that challenged them to assess the world from a different perspective: Ted Turner, Sir Richard Branson, Walt Disney, and Thomas Edison, just to name a few. Cass Business School, City University London, even published a study that said one in three U.S. entrepreneurs identified themselves as dyslexic. Though not an explanation for entrepreneurship, a very interesting commentary about the type of skills you need to succeed as an entrepreneur.

As someone who had trouble learning from age six on and was diagnosed with a learning disability later, I endured hours and hours of additional work to understand how my brain worked. While it was a hardship at the time, my learning disability taught me I could overcome basically anything. It was also an asset in the sense that I approached every problem differently than my peers, often coming up with new ways of solving problems.

So what's the bottom line? Don't discourage innovative thinking, even if it comes packaged in a hardship such as a learning disability. In reality, these unique attributes make us the people we are, and the world a better place.

Richard Branson video talking about dyslexia:

Today Show about entrepreneurs and dyslexia: