The Connected Adolescent

Wow, has it really been that long since I've shared my thoughts online?! Maybe it's been the 300,000 miles on airplanes this year or the continuous mad scramble to keep business flowing in this unprecedented economy.There certainly hasn't been any lack of conversational topics, though...

It's almost a cliche' anymore to point out the ways that the internet and information age has changed our life and how we interact. Early last year, I referenced Sean Tevis' indoctrination into political activism. I still remember the day he walked into my office relaying to me how he had been encouraged to launch a campaign for Kansas State Representative, Michelle had suggested that he solicit my view on the matter. With no funds and no political background running against the incumbent retired police chief in a strongly conservative Republican district, it seemed a bit of senseless folly, and with their first child on the way....perhaps Michelle expected me to talk him out of the idea (I never went back and asked her, she intimidates me too much). Not knowing at the time that I would be moving to Oregon in less than 2 months, I told him he would be a fool not to run, and that, as the underdog, he should turn this into a new media campaign ("go with what you know" I told my favorite web developer and blogger). Remember what happened earlier this year in Malaysia, right? (actually, most people in Kansas had not paid much attention to the political revolution in Malaysia earlier that year, so the reference was somewhat lost). Well, the rest, as they say, is history. Gaining national media attention for his web-based fund raising efforts, Sean made this laugher of a race incredibly close. It was Balboa-Creed I. It was so frightening for the establishment, that they introduced the "Sean Tevis Bill" right after the election, attempting to make sure that these new media activists can't threaten to upset the balance of power ever again (good luck with that one, I guess)....

Closer to home, though, I have entered that magical phase of fatherhood known as adolescence and puberty. Probably high on the conscious mind of any parent (and child) at this stage is social development. I have noted a trend in my own social interactions over the last 5 years. With the explosion of social media and constant connectivity, I find myself continuously connected with hundreds of friends and colleagues, even from the far corners of the earth. If I need professional advice on a marketing campaign, I can instantly ping 385 of my friends and coworkers on LinkedIn, if they each forward it to a friend of a friend, it reaches a network of over 4,177,000 people! On Facebook, I'll post albums from our hockey teams, instantly notifying 225 friends and family of Tyler's game-winning goal.

So, the dilemma; at what point should a 12-year old kid be allowed to socialize online? Being the progressive parent, I decided to set up a profile for him. As it turns out, facebook requires users to be 18years old to have an account. Poking around, though, a noticed several of Tyler's classmates' profiles. After a conversation with my wife and establishment of a very strict set of house rules and requirements, we turned our 12 y/o loose on facebook. Guess I'm not the only parent choosing to overlook the minimum age requirements - less than 3 weeks later, he has a network of over 100 online friends and classmates. It struck me that, unlike those in my generation, my sons will likely not find themselves with "long lost friends". Remember when your best friend moved away after 3rd grade? Sure, you traded post cards time and again, maybe a phone call when his family passed through town (oh, the days of interstate toll calls...). But, by high school he was little more than a memory and the occasional "I wonder what ever happened to Bill Coffer?"

What about that random encounter? The "visiting from out of town - friend of a friend" you met at the Halloween party? Unless you made considerable effort, developing and maintaining a long distance friendship was a rare occurrence. Not today. Meet someone who you'll only see twice a year? Not a problem, link up on facebook, follow each other's twitter feeds and become life-long friends...

But I wonder - do we spend so much time online connecting remotely with the masses, that we will develop less deep relationships to the few closest to us? Hard to tell, really, as I sit in my easy chair receiving Farmville gifts from my wife, who is lounging on the sofa next to me, also working on her laptop. "Hey Ty," I yell to my 12 year old in the next room, "I need more chickens for my coop." "No problem, dad, I'll send you one." Such is life on the family farm....

I'm not a salesman....really!

A double knit leisure suit, blue suede shoes, slicked back hair, the confident swagger, the artificial smile and the fast talking. Yep, we've seen the stereotype - the typical salesman. "He could sell refrigerators to Eskimos," is that frequently used cliche' to describe a "natural" salesman.

No wonder most people hate salesmen. Would you feel good convincing someone to spend money on a product that they don't need? I think these people are called "con artist".

So, when I decided to leave the Navy after 11+ years of highly technical, engineering and leadership experience, the last thing I wanted to do was degrade myself to the level of becoming a salesman. Somewhere along the way, though, I came under the influence of John "the Don" Devito, a laboratory chemist-turned-salesmen in the twilight of a glowing 35-year career at General Electric. Early on, John enlightened me with a very important lesson that I have been repeating and passing on for almost 11 years. With a scowling fixed glare, and a wag of the finger, John would repeatedly tell us "You are not here to sell products. You are here to solve problems!"

These words resonated particularly well with me. Some years earlier, as a newly assigned Engineer Officer on a Nuclear Submarine, my commanding officer (and mentor) would instruct me that, as a senior officer, my primary responsibility on board was to "Identify and correct deficiencies." So, it seemed, transitioning from Chief Engineer of a Nuclear Submarine to technical Sales Representative would be a relatively simple transition. Making things even more exciting for me, GE had just instituted its Six Sigma "At the customer, for the customer" initiative. This meant that all sales personnel completed Six Sigma Black Belt training and were required to participate in at least one customer Six Sigma process improvement project.

For those not familiar with Six Sigma, it is a process improvement methodology that utilizes a collection of statistical analysis tools to analyze and control the effectiveness and variance of a process. Not knowing any better, I latched onto this concept and became heavily immersed in a number of process efficiency projects with production engineers at my customers' facilities. This wasn't "sales", this was engineering and problem-solving.

Some years later, I found myself in a position to evaluate and recommend purchasing decisions for various business software packages. This meant that I was frequently on the other side of "sales" conversations. This is where I learned to actually dislike salesmen. Expecting the sales process to follow the pattern that I was taught at GE, I would come to meetings prepared to discuss the specific problems we were trying to solve and the detailed criteria we would use in our evaluation. I was repeatedly surprised when the software sales teams would come in and immediately jump into a sales presentation and demonstration of their software - taking no time whatsoever to determine my specific needs so that they could determine whether their technology was a reasonable solution. After a while, I just started avoiding these sales pitches altogether. Ironically, I spent the following year working as a software sales executive - and I don't think I did a single "canned" sales pitch the entire time.

Moving closer to my roots, the last several years have brought me back to that familiar ground of applying technology and engineering to improve the efficiency and profitability of customers' operations. At my current company, the "sales" people are the ones who design systems, size and select mechanical equipment and even do some of their own engineering. Oddly enough, one of our biggest customers recently reiterated that he did not want to have "salesmen" call on him - he wanted only "engineers" in his facilities that could solve his problems. As always, John the Don was right - we're not here to "sell" products after all.

Like I said - I'm not a salesman.....really