Category: Psychology

Management by Reframing

It’s all about perceptions. You can view that horrible mistake you made last week as a horrible mistake that will scar you forever. Or you can view it as a learning opportunity. A teachable moment, in presidential parlance.

As a manager, it is your job to remove the roadblocks that hinder your team’s path. Even if the roadblock is themselves, such as fear, anger, confusion, frustration, misunderstanding, or a mistake. A roadblock such as missing information is easy to resolve. Just get them the information they require. A roadblock such as fear is harder because you’re dealing with a psychological issue.

So how do you deal with such an issue? Reframing.

Reframing is an extremely powerful technique. It involves changing one’s perception of a particular situation from a negative, disabling one to a positive, enabling one. For instance, a mistake is really a teachable moment. Something you fear is really a chance to overcome that fear. Someone who’s angered you is really a chance to better understand that person.

Let’s take a more concrete example.

You are John’s manager. John has been working with the manager of another team for weeks now. The other manager, Bill, has been micromanaging him, despite not being John’s direct supervisor. It is known amongst the department that Bill is a micromanager, as he does this to his own team too. It usually doesn’t effect you and your team, but on this project, John needs to deal with Bill and thus encounters his micromanaging style.

You’ve spoken to Bill several times about this. After each talk, he eases up a bit on John. But after a few days, he’s back to his old ways.

What can you do about this?

  1. Keep on talking to Bill and reminding him about his behavior every few days. This would be time-consuming, however.
  2. Talk to Bill’s boss. Recommend that Bill be sent to a management class. If he’s on a critical project, he may not be able to go, even for a few days. Or his boss may not agree with your suggestion.
  3. Get Bill off the team. Talk to his boss and the overall supervisor of the project. Recommend that Bill be replaced. That may be a long & ardorous process, depending upon the politics involved and the policies of your company.
  4. Talk to John and reframe the situation for him. First, talk to Bill and find out why he’s micromanaging. Get to the fundamental psychological issue. Perhaps he’s a new manager and is very nervous about his job. Explain this to John and help him to understand Bill’s point of view. Since Bill is insecure, he wants lots of communication. Work with John to come up with some low-impact processes that give Bill all the information he wants. Perhaps a daily status report or issue-tracking tool will assuage his insecurities.
  5. Talk to Bill and reframe the situation for him. Understand his point of view, world view, and motivations. Relate to him how his micromanagement style is effecting the team. Offer alternatives, such as daily stand-up status meetings, issue-tracking tools, or other project management techniques. You could even suggest management training or self-help books to Bill directly.

I’ve been in this situation before. My approach was both options four and five. I talked to both John and Bill to help them reframe their behaviors and perceptions. In my scenario, we set up daily stand-up status meetings. This gave Bill all the information he needed to feel comfortable and got him off of John’s back. As a result, John was much happier and more productive.

The downside was requiring a fair bit of upfront time from my busy schedule, especially on the part of Bill. I had to talk to him several times in a supportive, non-threatening manner. I related to him my struggles as a new manager and how I dealt with a perceived lack of communication and control, then helped Bill with solutions.

For John’s part, he had believed that Bill didn’t like him. He didn’t realize that Bill was insecure in his role and simply wanted more information, which he was glad to provide. Understanding Bill’s point of view also encouraged John to provide more details in his status reports.

I essentially reframed the situation for both John and Bill. I helped them both understand the other’s point of view, then worked with them to set up solutions.

Reframing is a powerful technique that can be used by managers to enable their teams to become more effective. It is the art of changing one’s perception of a particular situation from a negative one to a positive one. I was able to use it to make the lives of John and Bill easier. Hopefully it can help you on your projects as well.

Photo by: Sundials by Carmichael

Reading True North: Introduction Exercise

I’m reading another great book right now. True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership by Bill George. He is a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School and well-respected former corporate executive. Along with coauthor Peter Sims, he wrote a great book on leadership as a follow up to his first, Authentic Leadership.

Each chapter of True North is preceded by a set of leadership exercises. I thought it would be fun to post my answers here as I went through this book.

The first exercise helps you “think about the basis for your leadership and the process you need to go through to become an authentic leader.”

The True North exercises:

  • Introduction Exercise
  • Chapter 1: Your Story Exercise
  • Chapter 2: Losing Your Way Exercise
  • Chapter 3: Your Greatest Crucible Exercise
  • Chapter 4: Knowing Your Authentic Self Exercise
  • Chapter 5: Practicing Your Values and Principles Exercise
  • Chapter 6: Your Motivations and Motivated Capabilities Exercise
  • Chapter 7: Building Your Support Team Exercise
  • Chapter 8: The Integrated Leader Exercise
  • Chapter 9: The Purpose of My Leadership Exercise
  • Chapter 10: Empowering Other Leaders Exercise
  • Chapter 11: Honing Your Leadership Effectiveness Exercise

What leaders, past of present, do you admire most?

  • What is it about them that you admire most?
  • Which of these leaders do you consider to be authentic leaders?
  • What can you learn from their leadership?

Damn. Those are tough questions. The leaders I admire are:

  • Jack Welsch – I admire the advances he’s made in the field of management and his dedication to the craft, as well as his desire to share that knowledge and encourage others to succeed, as evident in how often General Electric (GE) executives were sought after by other companies.
  • Warren Buffet – I admire his sensible & long-term thinking about the investment industry and his desire to give back & teach the community.
  • Bill Gates – I admire the fact that he was able to build one of the most powerful & impactful companies in the world, become the richest man in the world, then dedicate his life to humanitarian causes. Criticize him all you want, but his philantropic efforts have been enormous.
  • Joel Spolsky – I admire his dedication to his craft and the thought leadership he provides through his blog. It’s obvious he loves what he does and is always challenging himself and his company to do better.
  • Matt Mullenswag – I admire how he built a viable business on open-source software and attracted a huge community of developers & evangelists around something he personally cares deeply about.

To me, they are all authentic leaders. Looking at this list, I also notice that they all:

  1. love what they do
  2. believe in what they do
  3. give back to the community

Those core facets are what I admire most about them and what speaks “authenticity” to me. Hopefully I can emulate them and be half as good a leader as they are.

Thinking back over all your leadership experiences in your lifetime, which ones are you proudest of?

I was once the president of a cultural community service club in college. One of our activities was a street carnival that required a tremendous amount of work, especially for a busy college student with a double-major, two jobs, and officer responsibilties for a second club.

On the day of the carnival, I overslept, exhausted from my schedule. When I woke up in utter panic and rushed over to the street, I saw the carnival operating as scheduled. It was my job to meet the vendors and get them set up. So what happened?

My officers happened. They saw that I wasn’t there and stepped in to take over. At the time, I saw this as a failure of mine, but when I look back, I’m deeply proud of my team and what we did. The event also raised a lot of money for a church and their efforts to help the homeless.

During my time as an engineering manager at Yahoo! (YHOO), I had the pleasure of working with a large team of talented developers. There are dozens of seemingly small but important incidents that occurred over my time there.

For instance, there was the developer we considered a long-shot who floundered in his role for a while. Despite his performance, I always felt he was destined for more. I tried to give him as many opportunities as I could to shine in the form of side projects. One day, he was offered the perfect role for him by a team who had seen his side projects. He is now flourishing in that role.

There’s another developer who was a rock star, but didn’t realize it. Fortunately, neither did our competitors, with whom he was also interviewing. I was able to attract him to our company. I wasn’t even hiring for my team; I just knew he’d kick ass and wanted him in the company somehow. And he has definitely kicked ass.

Then there was the developer who didn’t have the solid experience we needed, but had an extra quality that intrigued me. Since hiring him, he’s risen to one of the top developers in the company. People try to woo him all the time now.

I wish I could go on – the developer who had the aptitude and eagerness to be a leader herself, and with some training, is now leading an important project; the developer who flailed nervously in his first role, then left to start his own successful company; and the developer who wanted to learn a different role and with some encouragement, training, and the right opportunities, has made it there. All of these are moments that fill me with pride whenever I think about them. I’m smiling right now as I type this.

Think about the basis for your leadership and the kind of leader you would like to be as you answer these questions:

  • What qualities do you bring to leadership?
  • What leadership qualities would you like to develop further?

My leadership style is that of a teacher. One of my former developers even called me his therapist and our one-on-one meetings as his therapy sessions.

I also regard myself as someone who is able to identify talent and harness it, through encouragement, reframing, training, discipline, and proper positioning. Wearing this hat, I told my team I was their agent and they, my rock stars.

While that’s great and all as a people manager, what I need to build now are my business management skills. Although I believe being good in business is largely a product of one’s knowledge of psychology (dealing with employees, customers, vendors, and other stakeholders is an interpersonal art), the ability to read a company’s key metrics is important in determining its financial & operational health.

Although I’ve always believed that I could hire someone who is smarter than me to do that, I feel I should also have that skill to some extent.

Asses yourself against the five dimensions of an authentic leader:

  • Do you understand your purpose?
  • Do you practice your values?
  • Do you lead with your heart?
  • Do you demonstrate self-discipline?

I understand that the search for a purpose can be a long, philosophical, and even spiritual journey for many people. For me, I believe a person can also choose their own purpose. I’ve already chosen mine – to improve our society fundamentally through education. The road is tough and I have a long way to go, though I’m thankfully not alone.

Everyday, I apply my values to my life. I believe that being a parent is one of the most difficult, important, and rewarding roles a person could ever play. To be a good parent, I need to be a good role model. To be a good role model, I need to live my life with honor, compassion, understanding, adaptability, discipline, and values.

Although I tend to be a cerebral thinker who decisively weighs all alternatives, if I don’t believe in an organization or goal, I cannot work in or towards it to my full extent.

Back to being a good parent, the overall sentiment is one of self-improvement. Self-kaizen, so to speak. Included in such a personal journey is constant self-discipline, the pillar for a strong mind and strong body. I don’t believe you could be an effective parent, or business owner, without self-discipline.

Do you feel that you are more effective as a leader when you are authentic, or does being authentic constrain your leadership effectiveness?

Being authentic is vastly more effective. If you are true to yourself, you’ll be able to lead with your most effective skills & talents, therefore making you a more effective leader.

Are you consciously developing your leadership abilities at this time?

I’m developing my leadership skills (as a business owner, father, etc) all the time. Also, I’m reading this book, aren’t I? Wink wink.

How would you answer these questions?

The True North exercises:

  • Introduction Exercise
  • Chapter 1: Your Story Exercise
  • Chapter 2: Losing Your Way Exercise
  • Chapter 3: Your Greatest Crucible Exercise
  • Chapter 4: Knowing Your Authentic Self Exercise
  • Chapter 5: Practicing Your Values and Principles Exercise
  • Chapter 6: Your Motivations and Motivated Capabilities Exercise
  • Chapter 7: Building Your Support Team Exercise
  • Chapter 8: The Integrated Leader Exercise
  • Chapter 9: The Purpose of My Leadership Exercise
  • Chapter 10: Empowering Other Leaders Exercise
  • Chapter 11: Honing Your Leadership Effectiveness Exercise

Psychology and Business

Homer Simpson's Brain The foundation of business is psychology. That is to say, if you understand psychology – especially the psychology of your customers – you’ll significantly increase your business’ chances of success.

Yup, and the sky is blue. Pretty obvious stuff. Hopefully.

What isn’t as obvious is how the actually mind works, how psychology actually plays out.

Fortunately, I just found a gem of resources from PsyBlog – How the Mind Reveals Itself in Everyday Activities. This collection of articles offers explanations and insights into practical applications of psychology, each of which could lead to potential business benefits. For instance:

Ask for help: Why people are twice as likely to assist as you think

This research concludes that, “if you want help, just ask. People are much more likely to help than you think, especially if the request is relatively small.” Also, “the other side of the coin is that most of us don’t realise just how hard it is to say no to a request for help.”

I suspect this only pertains to real-world interactions, rather than online interactions. I’m not sure how this would play out online. Or perhaps Yahoo! Answers (YHOO) is a good example – meaning it would play out pretty well.

This insight also means you could enlist the help of friends and family during these days of economic distress. If you’re worried about being overbearing, give them an easy way to say No. But chances are, you’ll be surprised at how many will really say Yes.

Mondays are not as depressing as you think

Apparently, Wednesdays are the worst days of the week, with Tuesday actually being pretty good. Perhaps your business could take advantage of that.

Want to do a giveaway of free ice cream, smoothies, or pastries? Call it a “Feel Good” deal and give them away on a Tuesday! Or perhaps do it on Monday, since that’s the perceived worst day of the week. Sometimes perception go much further than reality.

Why loud music in bars increases alcohol consumption

I’ve heard that salty snacks like chips and peanuts can make people thirsty, and thus more likely to order more drinks. Well, guess what? So can loud music.

It’s just a casual relationship though; studies haven’t determined if the volume of the music itself is what causes extra drinking, or the fact that people can’t hear each other as well, and thus they drink instead.

I wonder if this applies to food too. Perhaps you could play loud music at a fast food restaurant, thus encouraging patrons to eat quickly and leave. Hmm!

And that’s just a few of the ways understanding psychology can help your business. Good stuff, everyday psychology!

The Five Key Evolutions of Entrepreneurship

Oh wait, there’s more. Yesterday, I cited a quote from the article “How to Thrive in 2009” by Bo Burlingham of Inc. Magazine. In it, he interviews Jim Collins, author of Built to Last and Good to Great.

Collins also talks about what he calls the “five key evolutions that have helped bring to life the idea of entrepreneurship as a systematic, replicable process” since the 1970s. Before that era, starting your own company was a momentous task that was done without any kind of support. Now, these evolutions have allowed countless individuals to become entrepreneurs:

  • Raising Capital

    There are all kinds of ways to raise capital now, as compared to the 1970s: venture funds, angel networks, private equity, search funds, IPOs, etc. These new methods have enabled many more businesses to grow.

  • Learning To Be An Entrepreneur

    Starting a new business is now considered a learnable process, as opposed to something just wacky, gutsy people do on their own. There are now entrepreneurship classes, seminars, workshops, books, and websites galore, all geared towards teaching someone how to start a business.

  • Being a Hero

    In the 1970s, the role of an entrepreneur was seen as exploitative and sleazy, sort of like a used car salesman. Somewhere along the way, the role did a 180 and is now socially acceptable, even heroic, in some cases. What a flip-flop!

  • Building a Better Process

    Remember the phase, “build a better mousetrap”? That was what being an entrepreneur meant in the 1970s. Now, it means building a better process.

  • Going Through the Stages of Entrepreneurship

    Entrepreneurship has evolved through three stages so far, with a fourth that has been emerging. They are:

    Stage One
    You have a great idea.
    Stage Two
    You build a successful business.
    Stage Three
    You build a great company.
    Stage Four
    You start a movement.

Wow, I got two blog posts out of one Inc. article. Nice!

Photo by: foundphotoslj

It’s About Ambiguity Stupid, Not Risk

Pat It’s about ambiguity stupid, not risk. So says Jim Collins. (Except for the “stupid” part, he didn’t say that. Out loud, at least. heh)

In Inc. Magazine’s recent article “How to Thrive in 2009“, author Bo Burlingham interviews author Jim Collins for Inc. Magazine’s 30th anniversary issue.

Burlingham and Collins talk at length about entrepreneurship. One passage caught my eye. Burlingham asks him, “It has to do with your ability to handle risk, no?” To which Collins replies:

Not risk. Ambiguity. People confused the two. My students used to come to me at Stanford and say, “I’d really like to do something on my own, but I’m just not ready to take that much risk. So I took the job with IBM.” And I would say, “You’re not ready for risk? What’s the first thing you learn about investing? Never put all your eggs in one basket. You’ve just put all your eggs in one basket that is held by somebody else.” As an entrepreneur, you know what the risks are. You see them. You understand them. You manage them. If you join someone else’s company, you may not know those risks, and not because they don’t exist. You just can’t see them, and so you can’t manage them.

Too true, too true. Being an employee isn’t less risky (sometimes it’s moreso), it’s just a lot less ambiguous. And if you can’t take ambiguity, perhaps you shouldn’t consider being an entrepreneur.

Night Owls are Smarter and Richer

“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
– Unknown

New York City Skyline Sunset Thank goodness I’m a night owl. Because that means I’m smarter and richer than you.

At least, that’s what Fiona Macrae from Mail Online concludes from a new study by the University of Liège. Led by Christina Schmidt, the team studied homeostatic and circadian processes, which “operate to maintain the quality of our waking hours and of our cognitive performance during a normal day,” to “better understand the cerebral bases of these regulatory mechanisms and the ways in which they interact.”

In plain English, that means they wanted to find out how our brains work throughout the day and whether or not being a morning person (a lark) or night person (an owl) made a difference.

The answer: Yes. And now we know exactly how it makes a difference.

If both a lark and an owl (to use their parlance) have been awake for 1.5 hours, both will perform equally well on tests. But if both have been awake for 10.5 hours, larks will be feeling tired while owls will actually feel slightly more energetic.

That’s right, you morning people! That burst of energy us night people get more than compensates for our sluggish starts in the morning. Overall, we are more productive than you. Boo-yah!

And to think that I’ve been thinking about shifting my rhythm to become a morning person (if that’s even possible). Forget that. Maybe the saying should be this instead:

“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man poor, unsure and full of tired sighs.”

However, one of the supervisors of the study, Philippe Peigneux, was quoted in National Geographic News as saying, “morning types may be at an advantage, because their schedule is fitting better with the usual work schedule of the society. It may represent a problem for evening types obliged to wake up early while having difficulties going to bed in the evening, eventually leading to a sleep debt.”

Bummer.

In my line of work, I need to be up when my clients are up. And if my clients are up at 6:00 AM, then I have to be too. C’est la vie.

But wait, what about the claim that owls are smarter and richer than larks? Is that true? In addition to the aforementioned article by Macrae, Leon Kreitzman of the NY Times mentions in passing, “If anything, owls were wealthier than larks, though there was no difference in their health or wisdom.”

Strike one for being smarter. It isn’t concrete data on owls being richer either. And unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any more information to substantiate the claim, as much as I’d like it to be true.

I did find this interesting information though:

Oh well. Whether or not being an owl makes me smarter or richer, one thing’s for certain – I definitely get into the flow later in the evening and am sluggish in the mornings. If I’m just as productive as a morning person after having a chance to wake up, then that’s totally awesome.

Also, I ought to play Texas Hold ’em with larks in the evening, after we’ve all been awake for about 10.5 hours. Let’s see how well you play then, morning people! Boo-yah!

The Principles of Negotiation

Need to negotiate a sales contract, a business deal, or a salary increase? It can be tough, but with the right state of mind, you can perform any negotiation successfully.

Here are a bunch of great tips on successful negotiation I have heard from colleagues or read in books.

The Fundamentals of Negotiation

  • If you ask for something before a contract is signed, it is called “negotiating.” If you ask for something after a contract is signed, it is called “begging.” It is better to be a good negotiator than an expert beggar.
  • Everything is negotiable, but everything has a price.
  • You don’t get what you deserve; you get what you negotiate.
  • You can get anything in life if you help enough people get what they want.
  • Negotiate at the proper authority level with someone who can say “Yes.” Otherwise, your negotiations can get lost in the translation to the top. Avoid having to negotiate with multiple people and levels. Only negotiate with the main decision maker.
  • If you want something, ask for it. Good negotiators do not put their best terms on the table first.
  • Focus on the relationship. It is important that the relationship is still there once you are through with the negotiations. The relationship is also the key to future interactions.
  • Terms are just as important as dollars. Many prospects focus just on rates, but the other issues – such as project scope & service agreements – can have just as much importance.

The Four Attributes of Negotiation

Power
Power is the ability to get the other side to offer terms favorable to you. The top two power sources are competition and the printed word. If your prospect knows that three of their competitors want your business, then that prospect will likely want your business too. And remember: always question the printed word. Just because it is written does not mean it isn’t negotiable.
Time
Ninety percent of the negotiating happens in the last ten percent of the time allotted. Negotiating will go on forever unless one side imposes a deadline. The corollary is that time works against the person who does not have it. Therefore, never reveal your real deadline and never negotiate when you are in a hurry.
Knowledge
Knowledge is a combination of expertise and information regarding the wants and needs of the other side. How and when is the person with which you are dealing evaluated by his/her supervisor? How experienced is the person? What is this person’s potential budget range? Does this person have other selections from which to choose?
Leverage
Leverage is your ability to get the prospect to want your business on favorable terms. You can use power, time, and knowledge as leverage in your negotiations.

Negotiating Tactics

At the Start of the Negotiations

The Flinch
To perform the flinch, express shock and dismay at what the other side is presenting. This may force the other side to adjust.
Feel/Felt/Found Technique
This is a way of acknowledging another person’s feelings without giving any ground. It is also a way to disagree without being disagreeable. The script: I understand how you feel; others have felt the same way, but when they found out more about us, they moved forward with us.
First Offers
As a general rule: never accept the first offer. Simple as that.
The Vise
The purpose of the vise is to squeeze the price range up or down in your favor. When the other person names a price, you should respond: “You’ll have to do better than that.” However, be prepared for the retort: “How much better do I have to do?”

During the Middle of the Negotiations

The Trade-Off
Never give a concession without getting a concession. Otherwise, the balance of power will be out of your favor.
The Set-Aside
When you are deadlocked on an issue, set it aside and come back to it after you have reached an agreement on easier issues. Leaving the toughest issues for last means allowing the negotiations to gain momentum. By the end, the other side will be more flexible.

At the End of the Negotiations

BATNA
When you reach the end and are asking yourself if you should go through with the terms, ask yourself: What is my Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement?
The Walk-Away
Your ability to negotiate is tied to your ability to walk away from the deal. This is why you should always give yourself options.

Photo by: polandeze

What Kind of Tech User Are You?

Tokyo Shopping in Akihabara Are you a heavy tech user that paradoxically hates being so digitally connected? You’re not alone, according to The Mobile Difference, a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

According to this organization’s website, they are a “non-partisan, non-profit ‘fact tank’ that produces reports exploring the impact of the internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life” that was started in late 1999.

Their researchers surveyed a random & representative sample of 2,054 US residents in 2007. From that survey, they came up with ten categories of people grouped by their usage of technology.

One group of heavy technology users – the Ambivalent Networkers – don’t actually like their level of connectedness. And no, these people aren’t who you think they are. Ambivalent Networkers are mostly males in their late 20s, the post-college working-professional crowd. Not quite what you’d expect, huh? Or, perhaps, exactly what you would expect.

The ten groups identified by this report are:

Digital Collaborators – 8%
People using technology to collaborate with others and share their creativity with the world. This group has the greatest number of information gadgets of any group, the widest scope of online activities, and the most frequent internet habits.
Ambivalent Networkers – 7%
People using mobile devices heavily to connect with others and entertain themselves, but they don’t always like it when the cell phone rings. They rely on mobile devices to connect socially with others or to entertain themselves. Yet, they feel that this connectivity can be intrusive at times.
Media Movers – 7%
People using online access to seek out information, then happily pass them along to others via desktop and mobile access. They do not see information & communication technology as a key part of their personal productivity, but as a way to keep in touch with family and friends.
Roving Nodes – 9%
People using their mobile devices to connect with others and share information with them. They use social networking sites to mediate communication among their crowd, but are not much into blogging or maintaining their own web pages.
Mobile Newbies – 8%
People lacking robust access to the internet but like having their cell phones. They mostly use the plain old fashion voice capability of the mobile device, although occasionally they will fire off a text message to someone. The internet is very much on the periphery for this group of people.
Desktop Veterans – 13%
People dedicated to wireline access to digital information and enjoy how it opens up the pipeline to information for them. They use the internet actively for information gathering, staying in touch with others and enhancing their productivity. However, they are not heavily cell phone users.
Drifting Surfers – 14%
People who are light users and say they could do without modern gadgets and services. They will skip a day of using the internet without worry, and are likely to be emailing or checking news headlines when they do log on. Blogs and online video are not much of a concern for them.
Information Encumbered – 10%
People who feel overwhelmed by information and inadequate to troubleshoot modern information & communication technologies. Most often feeling information overload, they also need help in getting their devices and services to work. Old media such as the TV or landline telephone suit them fine.
The Tech Indifferent – 10%
People who are unenthusiastic about the internet and cell phone. They are infrequent online users and do the majority of phone calling on their home landlines. Not many in this group would care if they had to give up their cell phone or online connection.
Off the Network – 14%
People who neither use cell phones or the internet. This is a group of older, low-income Americans. While some have computers, they are not currently connected to the network (although some used to be).

Are you an Ambivalent Networker? Or a Drifting Surfer? Or a Desktop Veteran? Take this survey and find out.

Here are my results:

You are an Digital Collaborator

“If you are a Digital Collaborator, you use information technology to work with and share your creations with others. You are enthusiastic about how ICTs help you connect with others and confident in how to manage digital devices and information. For you, the digital commons can be a camp, a lab, or a theater group – places to gather with others to develop something new.”

That sounds about right. I like being connected and feel pretty confident that technology enables me to be more productive. With this blog, my writing blog, a Twitter account, a Flickr account, a Facebook account, a LinkedIn account, and a many more, I’m definitely sharing information.

What kind of tech user are you?