I ride my bike everyday to work and back. It’s great! Stockholm is adapted for bikes and there isn’t much cars compared to other cities. But even though they are few compared to most other major cities, they bug me as a cyclist. I grew up in Visby, where there hardly is any traffic at all (with the summer as an exception). The air in Stockholm is quite dense and smells terrible of exhaust gases. This is especially true if you ride your bike amongst them, as I do. So as a little experiment I will wear this respirator as a protection against the dust, the particles and the exhaust gases.

My respirator

At the end of this week (after three days of commuting) I will compare the images of the mask.
Sounds like fun? Please KOPIMI, and do this yourself!

One strategy to become a competetive and attractive employer is to treat your employees as your customers. A workplace should consist of more than sales and sallaries. Meaning is of greater importance. David over at 37signals wrote beautifully about this in “Put a dent in the universe“:

“To truly be inspired for great work, you need to know that you’re making a difference. That you’re putting a meaningful dent in the universe. That you’re part of something that’s making a difference and that your role in that something is significant.”

This is very true. The question is, how do you make your workplace significant? When you write PM’s, what are you focusing on? My guess is that you focus on how your product line will improve over the next months, how last months sales went and then you finish up with a promise about that upcoming mandatory holiday party you’ll be arranging. Where is the significance in this to me as an employee?

To me as an employee, it is useful to know the numbers, but only if my eventual feedback on these numbers will ever be considered and treated with respect. If not, I actually don’t give a damn. And why should I?

If your employees are limited to a box where they can post ideas about eventual improvements you might consider some time in the future, expect no love. The formal authority must be shared in order to open up for real love and practical use of the collective brilliance of your team.

I you as an employer look at your employees as your customers, you’ll constantly try to make your offer look and work better for them. You’ll always try to improve, and you’ll do your best to keep them more than satisfied. In fact, you’ll do your best to make them love your sweet deal. You want them to feel important, as if their work really mattered. And of course, it does. You can’t  fake this, if you’re clueless about how to approach this, ask someone for advices.

A basic course in marketing teaches you that your company have to have a story towards your customers. What story are you telling your employees? Or even better, what stories are you and your employees making, together? Do you have any tools for this? Are you sharing your love for your work with the world? In which way are your work improving the world? In which way are your work improving itself? In what way are you helping your employees grow? If your work isn’t developing the world right now, then change customers! Help your customers make the right choices. Make your work important!

Today when a client asks me to build a web site containing:

  • Blogs, members need to be able to blog
  • Marketplace, like eBay
  • Photo gallery
  • Forum
  • Calender
  • Editorial space (for articles and fluffies)

my advice to them is always the same.

“You don’t need to. Let’s use what’s already out there”

Our roles as web developers/ web strategists is shifting within this new era when most of the base functionality such as blogs, social networks, calenders, project collaboration and even video editors are actually available for free already! In this vast space of terabytes there is more then enough apps to meet the customers need. Why reinvent the wheel?

Most of the traffic/market/people/users are already on Facebook for example. How do we reach them through that specific channel? Within Facebook there are room for groups, events, messages and even community based games. It’s perfect!

So, insted of forcing the users to join yet another social network / sign up for a campaign, let’s make it easy for them. That should be our main goal, I think. To make it easy for the user.

ps. If any customer feels targeted by this, don’t. I get requests like these all the time, and there is nothing wrong with it. It’s just up to us web // whatever  (we’ve got LOTS of different titles, but mostly we are the same) to get you on the right track. It’s our responsibility as experts to lead the field and to make the best out of your initial idea.

Right now I’m chatting (that’s jabbering) with Pontus, my big little brother. He is right now in San Juan Del Sur, in Nicaragua and I’m in Stockholm. Every time I have a conversation in an instant with someone who’s so far away, I can’t just let it go. I find it amazing!

It’s just as with email. Do someone inspire you? Send them an email and ask your questions and send them your thanks! Oftenly they’ll have the time to answer it. It’s sweet, in the online world, everyone is just an email away.