Hip & Sage

Six Pixels of Separation

Check out this post from the folks at 800CEOREAD for Six Pixels of Separation. First, I want to give cudos to the author and/or publisher for a GREAT book title. Titles natter. Second, I would like to encourage all you sage hipsters out there to check this out (and perhaps buy it for your not-yet-hipster friends). This notion of the connectedness of things and the new ways we can and need to navigate through the virtual human web (VHW - you heard it here first) is so critical for our success and hapiness. Well, unless you are independentally wealthy enough that you can buy your own remote island and live off shellfish and coconuts.

Here is the link for the book on Amazon - there is a nice short video clip that explains the focus of the book.

My Interview on Spark Radio - Breakthroughs, Management, Hip and Sage

I had the pleasure of being Melanie's guest on her radio talk show called Spark Radio last night. We talk about a lot of things including management, staying competitive in the workplace, and generating breakthroughs. You can check it out here.

People Love Lime - Love the Concept of Being Hip and Sage!

I just got back from the ASTD International Conference where I did a presentation about Hip and Sage followed by a book signing. If you attended, thank you for your support. Many people told me that they love the title and overall concept for Hip and Sage and everyone I talked to loved the hip lime book cover.

That's so cool. The book title and cover matters A LOT. Here is a post from Jeffrey Krames about book titles.

I learned a few new things at the conference that will help keep me on the path of staying hip. First, there are many creative ways to use Web 2.0 tools within our organizations. And if your IT department freaks out, use a tool that is outside the firewall - Sun Microsystems does it, and they are huge. And they stressed the importance of making any tech tools EASY to use. So if you want to use a social netowrk, pick a platform that makes it easy for users to share their work and interact with other members.

During my talk, I used an audience response system called Qwizdom. It was very cool and I would love to have the system for all my training (I am afraid to ask the cost!). It's cool not just because the attendees participate and answer Yes/No and multiple choice questions, but also because all the data is tracked and you can see trends over time. They will be sending me the data from my session and I will post it here so you can see how the group answered questions related to hip and sage workplace habits.

Stay tuned!

Hip and Sage in my hands....

I got five cases of lime green books today from my publisher Davies Black (an imprint of Nicholas Brealey) - Hip and Sage is a book! It won't be available for shipment for a week or two, but it was fun to open the box and see the bright and beautiful cover stare back at me. This is a cool book, I think. Well, I guess it needs to be cool sice it is about how to STAY COOL.

As I thumbed through the pages, I recalled how this book concept was born. I'd like to thank Mark Morrow at ASTD Press, because he was the first person I shared the book concept with and he encouraged my ideas to make it a departure from the traditional business book (Hip and Sage is co-published by ASTD Press). Departing from a pattern can cause everyone involved with the process more work and this was the case with Hip and Sage. It was a bit labor intensive, but fun for all I hope.

Departing from traditional patterns is very hip and sage, actually, so it makes sense that the book became a bit irreverent in terms of style and format. There is one part of the book inspired by Joan Didion's swirling and lyrical writing style (I said "inspired by," I am not claiming to have achieved something so grand as her style). Another short piece is about a dead body and intended to be funny - it is called, "Tragically Hip," you will see what I mean when you read it. Yet another part is the transcript of a phone conversation between Dan Pink and me as we talk about Tony Bennett. In between these and more entertaining tidbits are helpful suggestions and strategies for being hip and sage.

I hope you will pick up a copy of Hip and Sage and stay tuned HERE for regular updates and posts about ways we can all stay relevant and wonderful as we sage up. We might need titanium hip replacements, but we can do our physical therapy with our 300GB iPods strapped to our belts as we listen to Charlie Rose podcasts and the latest compositions by Yanni. OK, maybe I'm the only one who digs Yanni.