Blind man's bluff

Meaning

A game, in which a blindfolded player tries to catch others.

Blind man's bluff has been one of the most popular of children's games for centuries. In the most commonly known version one player is blindfolded (or hooded in some countries) and, after being turned around a few times for disorientation, has to catch one of the others. The blindfolded player is usually taunted, struck and poked with sticks, for the general amusement.

There are records of a variation of it being played in pre-Christian Greece and almost every country has a form of it. In Europe alone we find:

Italy - Mosca cieca (blind fly).

Germany - Blindekuh (blind cow)

Sweden - Blindbock (blind buck)

Spain - Gallina ciega (blind hen)

France - Colin-maillard (a name deriving from Jean Colin-Maillard, a warrior who had his eyes gouged out during a battle, but continued to fight, striking at random around him)

Gotta love the French.

So, what does any of this have to do with technology you say? These blogs are always about technology - so where is the technology connection?

Blind man’s bluff (in all of its forms) was entertaining because it highlighted that those who had “the knowledge” were the chosen ones. Those who found themselves “under the hood” were at an information disadvantage. It is their struggle while suffering with this lack of knowledge and information that has made the game entertaining for hundreds of years.

The empowered vs. the weak. The haves vs. the have-nots. The classic underdog struggle. This imbalance of those who have the knowledge vs. those who are information blind is what makes Blind Man’s Bluff a game.

Classic higher education always favored those who could afford to pay for it. Knowledge is power, and those with the power typically rule the powerless. Years ago, if you grew up in a country that supported free libraries, you would have a great advantage. Today, if you grow up having easy access to high speed Internet, you would have a significant advantage to those without.

Technology changes everything. What are the hot topics of the day? Mobility. Cloud. Distance Learning. eBooks. MOOCS may change the world of higher education forever, or they may become a passing fad. But one thing's for sure: immediate and unfettered access to knowledge and critical information will continue to be recognized as something to be coveted.

In the game of life, it is more fun to be the one without the blindfold or hood. Unless you enjoy being taunted, struck and poked with sticks, for the general amusement.

Black Boxes for Business and Life

 In aviation, a "black box" (they are actually bright orange, to facilitate their being found after a crash) is an audio or data recording device in an airplane or helicopter. The cockpit voice recorder records the conversation of the pilots and the flight data recorder logs information about controls and sensors, so that in the event of an accident investigators can use the recordings to assist in the investigation.

After a crash the first thing they look for is "the black box". 

Many days after Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash landed at San Francisco International Airport there is no official explanation for what caused the incident. Officials have said the Boeing 777, which had flown from Seoul in South Korea, was traveling slower than recommended on its final approach, though it could be up to a year before a definite cause for this is determined. 

In the exhaustive investigation that follows, all factors -- mechanical, operational, and human performance -- are taken into account.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is the government agency that investigates all major aviation accidents. Its purpose is to explain accidents and provide safety recommendations. That is an interesting word - recommendations. Since it was formed in 1967, the NTSB has completed more than 132,000 aviation accident investigations.

The United States has a habit of spending whatever it takes to finish an air crash investigation. When Trans World Airlines Flight 800 crashed into the Atlantic in 1996, the US spent millions of dollars, with thousands of government agents, a little army of people taking every little piece of wreckage - off of the ocean floor.

More than 132,000 aviation accident investigations. Some accidents were of small single engine planes. Some were of the size of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 with hundreds of people on board. But all were investigated, deeply and immediately, with no consideration to cost. All so that we can make recommendations. 

We simply must know what happened, not matter how long it takes, not matter how much it costs. But why?

Because not flying is simply not an option. 

The technology of air travel has changed the way that we live, work and play. Air travel has become so common that the thought of saying "hey, this is just too dangerous" is just not something that we are willing to accept. The technology of air travel has become a right, not a privilege. 

Crash landings like Asiana Airlines Flight 214 or Trans World Airlines Flight 800 make the news, and thankfully are very rare. But who determines what is acceptable frequency? What if such tragic air accidents happened once a month? Once a week? What would it take before we hit the tipping point where continuing to fly is simply not acceptable? 

One person dies in the US every 13 minutes in a Car Accident- 115 killed each day. This must be an acceptable number since auto sales are up this year. Is this why Google is so hot on launching technology that makes cars that drive themselves?

Such tipping points are all around us in our every day lives, but we ignore them. We know that smoking is bad for you, but cigarettes still exist. We know that chemicals in our foods is unhealthy, but we still eat manufactured foods. Don't even get me started on soda. Is there anyone on the planet that can say that drinking soda or smoking cigarettes is GOOD for you?

What about in your own business? How many bad customer experience stories were recorded by your own company's "black box" but were deemed to be acceptable? How many business lessons were observed and discussed - but then simply ignored - deemed to be well below the tipping point of requiring any corrective action. 

Remember the "Miracle on the Hudson?" Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger gained fame when he successfully ditched US Airways Flight 1549, which had been disabled by striking a flock of Canada geese during its initial climb out, over the Hudson River off Manhattan, New York City, on January 15, 2009. All of the 155 passengers and crew aboard the aircraft survived.

What would Sully say, if he reviewed your business flight data recorder?

My Job is to find a Job!

There are many reasons to get an education. It gives you perspective on the world, makes you a complete person and most importantly, helps you build a career. Unfortunately, there is a major mismatch between our current educational system and the job skills employers need.

The paradox of high unemployment and a war for talent continues. We don’t have a jobs crisis; we have a skills crisis:

• 45 percent of U.S. employers say lack of skills is the main reason for entry-level vacancies.

• Only 42 percent of worldwide employers believe new graduates are adequately prepared for work.

Employers in the US understand this and they have increased their investment in training. Spending on corporate training grew 12 percent in 2012, the highest increase in nine years.

Skills gaps are costing companies money. Employers stated they would be willing to pay new workers higher salaries if they had entry-level skills the employers wanted — often basic reading, writing, math and problem solving skills.

Educational institutions are out of sync with employer needs. While 72 percent of educational leaders think newly educated workers are ready for work, only 42 percent of employers do. This is a big mismatch. Primary and secondary educational institutions are not in touch with employers needs.

Research at www.USDLA.org validates this. Most of our members are investing heavily in new online and virtual corporate universities, on-boarding programs and continuous learning programs.

Students agree that traditional education methods don’t drive skills development. Asked to rank the educational methods that drive their greatest improvement in skills, students cited on-the-job training as their No. 1 need. Lectures, the primary mode of education in schools, was rated 12th. USDLA research shows 72 percent of business managers say the same thing.

Corporate learning managers regularly blend lectures with a variety of informal learning techniques. Today corporations spend less than 60 percent of training budgets on instructor-led training.

Vocational training has less perceived value than academic degrees. Students in every country value traditional education over vocational education except for Germany, where 49 percent of respondents say academic education is more valuable. Germany is filled with apprentice-based programs - and has an unemployment rate among the lowest in Europe.

Students have weak understanding of the skills and degrees that will best help them find a job. This is another gap in the system. Most students are not sure what educational program will help them find a good job. Even when colleges and universities have great job-related programs, students are not coached on what these programs will actually mean for their career.

There are many lessons here:

1. Educational institutions need and want closer relationships with business to drive their own transformation. Employers should meet with local universities and schools, and help them understand workforce needs.

2. Massive open online courses will transform education. You can access these courses at little to no cost.

3. We can’t wait for schools and universities to build the skills we need. Learning investments are more important than ever, and this means a strong focus on talent-driven learning programs, talent management, assessment and developing a total corporate learning culture.

4. Skill development expertise is the new arsenal for business success. If you don’t take the time, spend the money or learn how to build world-class development programs, you will not be able to compete. There is no real war for talent; there is a war for skills, and there’s no better way to win the war than to build your arsenal internally.

*****

The mission of the www.USDLA.org is to serve the distance learning community by providing advocacy, information, networking and opportunity. We will help you stay connected and ahead of trends in learning — distance learning , e-learning, mobile learning, computer-based training (CBT), web-based training (WBT), instructor-led training (ILT), online training, online learning, blended learning, classroom training, webinars... Email me: TCapone@USDLA.org to learn more.

Oxytocin is for Closers!

How did we ever sell anything before the Internet?

In traditional face-to-face sales there is an “it factor.” Why is it that one sales rep is always number one or number two in sales results for the region? What have they got? How did they get “it”? How can we train other reps so they develop “it”? How can we hire new reps who have “it”?

And - does this logic hold up when applied to eCommerce websites, viral videos, tweets and blogs?

When I was just starting out I had the benefit of working with two of the best sales people I’ve ever known. One was a young guy from Texas who had a comfortable way of talking with people. He made them relax and the barriers came down. His boss was a guy in his mid-thirties who had grown up in the Plains states. His expertise in computers had taken him from college to the CIA to private business. Somewhere along the way he had learned to talk to business owners so they could immediately see the real benefits of what he was proposing. To the casual observer, these were a couple of ordinary businessmen who drove nice cars. But in the technology industry, these guys were superstars.

Oxytocin Level = It Factor

They had the “it factor” in sales. I can only imagine how much money they would have made, if they had the power of today’s online sales and marketing tools at their disposal. It’s like asking how many home runs Babe Ruth would have hit, if he played with today’s lively baseball in hitter friendly ballparks.

Those guys taught me how to sell. And one of the most important things they got me to understand is that selling is not primarily about exteriors – website looks, viral videos and the ability to tweet a catchy line of dialogue. Selling is all about connecting with a person and moving them to a decision – hopefully a decision that involves signing an order. Cool websites and trending videos might get you in the door but that is all it gets you. Once you get down to business, you better know how to relate to the owner’s world and offer some great improvements in how they will save and make money. You cannot do everything with an online survey; at some point you actually need to connect with people. You need to get the Oxytocin flowing.

Through the years I’ve been schooled in just about every professional sales training program there is: Needs-based selling, professional sales skills, win friends, social style, personality analysis, etc. Name the sales training program and I’ve spent days learning it. The point of these sales training programs is to try to teach you something you should really be learning on your own:

   - How to use all your experience in life to make a connection to another human being

  - How to find out where they are and whether you can help them on their journey and,

  - How to help them make a change and feel comfortable that they’re doing the right thing.

I’ve interviewed and hired hundreds of sales reps over the years. Through the years I’ve developed a list of questions I ask in an interview. But here’s the interesting part – the responses to the questions are as much about “how” as they are about “what”. I look for what their answers will reveal about how they think, how they use their life experience to relate to me, how they listen. I look for the qualities of the great salesperson that I’ve seen in the few real stars I’ve had the opportunity to work with. So here’s my list of what makes a great salesperson:

  - They have confidence.

  - They are street smart.

  - They don’t bluff.

  - They study people and understand human nature.

  - They understand the power of making your life easier and improving your business.

  - They’re good at role-playing but even better with a real prospect.

  - They can tell a story with a beginning, middle and an end.

  - They have a great conversational style.

  - They can talk to you and hold your attention.

  - They can be quiet and listen and when they listen, they hear.

  - They will be “in the moment” during a sales call like a master of “improv.”

  - They can deliver a sales script so that you’d never know it was a script.

  - They will challenge your thinking.

  - They have the strength to disagree and the sense to ask you why they’re wrong.

  - They can make you want to buy from them.

  - They connect with people well enough that even if you don’t buy today, you’ll remember them down

the road.

  - How they sell is in the fabric of their being.

Websites, viral videos and social media tools have changed the way that the world does business. But never confuse marketing and sales with “doing business”. People do business with people, not “the cloud”. People don’t do business with websites, or kiosks or clickable links on iPads or smartphones. You buy online but you don’t do business with the cloud.

Did you ever have a friend or neighbor ask you to “click on a link” or watch a video (or come to a meeting about a business opportunity) as a favor? Does the mere thought of that meeting make your Oxytocin level go up or down? There are no shortcuts to success in business, no matter what your friends say on your Facebook timeline.

All of those leads that you gain from all of those tweets, and blogs and videos - why catch all of these fish if you have no viable plan to cook what you catch?  Your “online” message needs to match your offline business. And that will require the right kind of people. Amazon.com gives good customer service - but it is all virtual. Zappos gives GREAT customer service - via real people who truly care. You can FEEL the customer service flow from the telephone into your ear when you do business with Zappos. It is proven that Oxytocin levels are driven up when you do business with Zappos (they measured it) and you will never meet these Zappos people face to face. 

Unless of course, they invite you to their kid’s high school graduation party.

Father's Daze

If you type in the Google browser bar “how many days” from one date to another, it calculates your answer in an instant.

My oldest son was born on March 2nd, 1990. So that makes it 8507 days with me as a father. I don’t know which is more amazing. The fact that: A) you can get an answer to such a complex question from Google (for free) in a fraction of a second or B) that I have been a father for 8507 days.

It got me to thinking about how time flies, and all of the amazing things that have happened in the world of telecom and IT in the past 8507 days:

#10: The demise of Novell, Banyan, 3Com, DEC, Compaq, Polaroid, Palm, Nortel, Silicon Graphics ... it's a long list. While some of those companies simply died or were swallowed up, others have and continue to just slowly wither away (I'm looking at you, Novell). What's really interesting is how much dumb luck plays a major role in determining success in business.

#9: The rise of the Internet, which changed the world. The sad thing is that the USA, the country that created the Internet, still doesn't completely understand the Internet's importance. And this is why we're ranked 9th or 16th - depending on how you measure these things - worldwide in terms of broadband availability, price and speed.

#8: The rise of ecommerce. Ecommerce, the selling and buying of goods and services online, has changed how we do business. 8507 days ago, the idea that the Internet would become a global commerce platform was unthinkable. Now we're arguing about how to collect taxes on online purchases.

#7: The re-rise of Apple. Perhaps one of the more surprising stories in the last 8507 days has been the phoenix-like success of Apple. The big question is whether Apple can still be Apple without Jobs ... we'll know in the next 8507 days, that’s for sure. I bought my first computer, an Apple IIe 12,705 days ago. I wish I kept it, as today it would be worth a fortune on eBay.

#6: The consumerization of IT. Around 900 to 1,500 days ago the consumer IT equipment market started eating away at the fringes of the enterprise where it was easier and cheaper for branch offices and telecommuters to deploy low end routers and NAS devices purchased at their local Best Buy than go through the cost and complexity of using Big Boy IT gear. This accelerated as corporate users began increasingly bringing their own laptops and cellphones into the enterprise. Is this creating a huge management mess for IT, or is it a huge cost savings? Whichever it is, it's not going away anytime soon.

#5: The end of privacy and security. Along with all the good stuff that the Internet has made possible there is plenty of bad stuff too. The 'Net, the operating systems we use, and the services we rely upon all ensure you're trackable and hackable. How many days ago did we all lose our privacy for good? *See Google, below.

#4: The rise of Linux and open source. Who could have predicted 8507 days ago that Linux and the open source movement would become such powerful market forces?

#3: The rise of social media. Facebook and Twitter and the rest. Need I say more? Whether social media as we know it today will survive the next 8507 days is debatable.

#2: The rise of Google. Google, one of the few companies to ever become a verb, was founded only *5,643 days ago and it's growth and the sheer exuberance of its research and development has been truly astounding.

And finally ...

#1: The death of the PC. Who knew that the PC would so quickly wane in importance to become just one of the end user computing platforms? This year we shall see PC shipments drop by almost 8%!

Yes indeed, 152 days ago, my oldest son received his Bachelors of Science Degree from Quinnipiac University (Computer Information Systems). 27 days ago, we watched Tom Jr. accept his diploma along with thousands of proud parents.

My son a.k.a. "Tommy Baby" (pronounced tah-mee bay-bee by me) has spent a total of 8507 days on the planet - and now 152 of those days - as a (thankfully employed) college graduate. 

Yes, time certainly does fly. Now I know where the expression Father Time comes from.

Happy Father’s Day everyone!

Posted Early - Playing Golf Tomorrow!

Start me up!

  What is a startup?  This is a question that has been asked for years.

Here is my favorite definition of a startup: A startup is a company that is confused about what its product is, who its customers are, and how to make money. As soon as it figures out all of these things, it ceases to be a startup and then it becomes a real business.

Except, most of the time, that does not happen. And that about says it all.

I love technology and I love business. I am in the business of selling, promoting, marketing and nurturing technology. A technologist. A technology ombudsman. All of that sounds so much better than salesman, although I resemble that too, on occasion.

Most startups fail. Good. They were the first generation of a long line of good ideas. “The Facebook” that was invented in a dorm room is not (just) “Facebook” that we all know today.

The Wright Brothers are credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903. There were no engines small enough, light enough or powerful enough to fit their plane - so they had to build an engine first, in their bicycle shop.

Few inventions have changed how people live and experience the world as much as the invention of the airplane. During both World Wars, government subsidies and demands for new airplanes vastly improved techniques for their design and construction. Following the World War II, the first commercial airplane routes were set up in Europe. Over time, air travel has become so commonplace that it would be hard to imagine life without it. It has also altered the way in which people live and conduct business by shortening travel time and altering our concept of distance, making it possible for us to visit and conduct business in places once considered remote.

Enter stage right: the Internet. 

When I was growing up, there were several Travel Agents in our town. Now I cannot find a Travel Agent, except online. Can anyone say videoconferencing?

Would there be any car dealerships without Henry Ford? Does anyone (ever) buy a car these days without checking it all out first online?

When a startup becomes a real business, it can change the world. Sometimes a successful startup creates new startups, that kills off the first startup. If they do not kill it off completely, the new startups morph the old startup beyond recognition.

The startup is dead.  Long live the startup!