Making users do remarkable things...

The little one was talking with passion about the Lego bricks that he has. He has a ton of them - and enjoys playing with them. The things he makes cannot be imagined by anyone - like it is for any other child. Every child goes into his or her own world when they play with these blocks. No other toy ever has sustained his (or any other childs) enthusiasm for such a long time. Lego knows - after all it has been in business for nearly a hundred years. There are new toys, fads, gimmicks, extensions, but Lego rules the roost.

Yes, Lego is a consummate marketeer - they create new bricks, new themes, new ideas and they are as consumerist as they come - after all, kids WANT Lego. And Lego is a premium brand. But think about it, what makes them tick?

For one, it is a premium brand - their products do not fail. They deliver what they promise - often much more than that. So, customer delight is almost a given.

Second, their customer service is exemplary and I have experienced it myself - it is clearly not hearsay.

But beyond all this, the biggest thing that Lego does is about 'what it makes the user do'. Lego is very little about itself - the power that it gives the user is what it gives it so much credence. It is all about letting the user fly in his or her imagination. The worlds that children get into with Lego is amazing. It is all about giving power to your users.

Now think about this from a Learning and Development perspective. Do your trainings and offerings and educational things - put power in the hands of the user or are they designed to put the user in their place? Think about putting power in the hands of the user and your entire perspective changes. Of course, a traditional HR person would not want to empower people - because of the nature of control - but these days, nobody wants gatekeepers - they want enablers.

This is what Kathy Sierra had spoken about, many years back, and it has remained in my head ever since. It is all about making users remarkable...

No conferences

Decided not to attend any conferences this year. Atleast not the typical ones I have often ranted about here. Will be both choosy and intentional about which ones to attend. The ones to attend are the ones put up by practitioners of a craft. The rest is marketing one way or other.

And the unconference happened

Most conferences have an agenda. No, not the stated agenda, but an agenda of marketing, airtime to sponsors, ensuring the past and future customers are invited, of ensuring that the "stars" of the industry are invited and attention showered of them. All in all it is a your scratch my back, I scratch your back syndrome. Some of these become cliques and claques and therefore the real point behind a conference is lost. And then there is the unconference - organised and run by the alumni of the ISABS ODCP program. And as the name suggests, this is truly an un-conference organised by the alumni, for the alumni. No funders - except the alumni themselves. No sponsors. Just the team. I havent seen a more tastefully organised conference (yes, its an unconference). To begin with - the location - not a typical star hotel, but an outdoorsy place. The food - simple. The welcome - personal. It was like a homecoming. The setting was warm and welcoming. It was a smaller conference. Ju...

The power of jotting down ideas

Long long ago, I always used to carry a small letterpad with me. To jot down ideas that might occur. Over the years, it has changed from a notepad to evernote to google keep, but the power of jotting down ideas is immense. Small ideas go into keep. Anything to be quickly typed goes into whatsapp as a self message. Bigger or better formed ideas go into Google docs A few are still written, but I manage to copy them into a digital format sooner rather than later. But the power of jotting down is immense. My google keep is an encyclopedia of ideas - most of which may never get implemented.

Serendipity and Learning

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